diff --git a/man/man8/arpd.8 b/man/man8/arpd.8
index 37b6ba46..a14044b4 100644
--- a/man/man8/arpd.8
+++ b/man/man8/arpd.8
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 arpd \- userspace arp daemon.
 
 .SH SYNOPSIS
-Usage: arpd [ -lkh? ] [ -a N ] [ -b dbase ] [ -B number ] [ -f file ] [ -n time ] [ -R rate ] [ interfaces ]
+Usage: arpd [ -lkh? ] [ -a N ] [ -b dbase ] [ -B number ] [ -f file ] [-p interval ] [ -n time ] [ -R rate ] [ interfaces ]
 
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 The
@@ -34,6 +34,9 @@ Suppress sending broadcast queries by kernel. It takes sense together with optio
 -n <TIME>
 Timeout of negative cache. When resolution fails arpd suppresses further attempts to resolve for this period. It makes sense only together with option -k This timeout should not be too much longer than boot time of a typical host not supporting gratuitous ARP. Default value is 60 seconds.
 .TP
+-p <TIME>
+Time to wait in seconds between polling attempts to the kernel ARP table. TIME may be a floating point number.  The default value is 30.
+.TP
 -R <RATE>
 Maximal steady rate of broadcasts sent by arpd in packets per second. Default value is 1.
 .TP
diff --git a/misc/arpd.c b/misc/arpd.c
index 4f0021ba..dd1de80c 100644
--- a/misc/arpd.c
+++ b/misc/arpd.c
@@ -90,11 +90,13 @@ int negative_timeout = 60;
 int no_kernel_broadcasts;
 int broadcast_rate = 1000;
 int broadcast_burst = 3000;
+int poll_timeout = 30000;
 
 void usage(void)
 {
 	fprintf(stderr,
-"Usage: arpd [ -lkh? ] [ -a N ] [ -b dbase ] [ -B number ] [ -f file ] [ -n time ] [ -R rate ] [ interfaces ]\n");
+		"Usage: arpd [ -lkh? ] [ -a N ] [ -b dbase ] [ -B number ]"
+		" [ -f file ] [ -n time ] [-p interval ] [ -R rate ] [ interfaces ]\n");
 	exit(1);
 }
 
@@ -591,7 +593,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	int do_list = 0;
 	char *do_load = NULL;
 
-	while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "h?b:lf:a:n:kR:B:")) != EOF) {
+	while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "h?b:lf:a:n:p:kR:B:")) != EOF) {
 		switch (opt) {
 	        case 'b':
 			dbname = optarg;
@@ -615,6 +617,12 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		case 'k':
 			no_kernel_broadcasts = 1;
 			break;
+		case 'p':
+			if ((poll_timeout = 1000 * strtod(optarg, NULL)) < 100) {
+				fprintf(stderr,"Invalid poll timeout\n");
+				exit(-1);
+			}
+			break;
 		case 'R':
 			if ((broadcast_rate = atoi(optarg)) <= 0 ||
 			    (broadcast_rate = 1000/broadcast_rate) <= 0) {
@@ -807,7 +815,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		}
 		if (do_stats)
 			send_stats();
-		if (poll(pset, 2, 30000) > 0) {
+		if (poll(pset, 2, poll_timeout) > 0) {
 			in_poll = 0;
 			if (pset[0].revents&EVENTS)
 				get_arp_pkt();