diff --git a/degesch.c b/degesch.c
index 48e2c17..2f8dc83 100644
--- a/degesch.c
+++ b/degesch.c
@@ -3599,9 +3599,16 @@ explode_formatter_attr (struct exploder *self, struct formatter_item *item)
 static void
 explode_text (struct exploder *self, const char *text)
 {
+	// Throw away any potentially harmful control characters first
+	struct str filtered = str_make ();
+	for (const char *p = text; *p; p++)
+		if (!strchr ("\a\b\x1b", *p))
+			str_append_c (&filtered, *p);
+
 	size_t term_len = 0;
 	char *term = iconv_xstrdup (self->ctx->term_from_utf8,
-		(char *) text, -1, &term_len);
+		filtered.str, filtered.len + 1, &term_len);
+	str_free (&filtered);
 
 	mbstate_t ps;
 	memset (&ps, 0, sizeof ps);
@@ -3613,11 +3620,6 @@ explode_text (struct exploder *self, const char *text)
 		hard_assert (len != (size_t) -2 && len != (size_t) -1);
 		processed += len;
 
-		// Throw away any potentially harmful control characters
-		// XXX: this is likely to break shift state encodings
-		if (wcschr (L"\a\b\x1b", wch))
-			continue;
-
 		struct line_char *c = line_char_new (term + processed - len, len, wch);
 		c->attrs = self->attrs;
 		LIST_APPEND_WITH_TAIL (self->result, self->result_tail, c);