diff --git a/src/main/java/storm/sqs/SqsQueueSpout.java b/src/main/java/storm/sqs/SqsQueueSpout.java
index df34169..887ae8b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/storm/sqs/SqsQueueSpout.java
+++ b/src/main/java/storm/sqs/SqsQueueSpout.java
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 package storm.sqs;
 
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.net.URI;
+import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
@@ -55,6 +57,7 @@ public abstract class SqsQueueSpout extends BaseRichSpout {
 	private SpoutOutputCollector collector;
 	private AmazonSQSAsync sqs;
 	
+	private final String endpoint;
 	private final String queueUrl;
 	private final boolean reliable;
 	private LinkedBlockingQueue<Message> queue;
@@ -66,6 +69,11 @@ public abstract class SqsQueueSpout extends BaseRichSpout {
 	 * @param reliable whether this spout uses Storm's reliability facilities
 	 */
 	public SqsQueueSpout(String queueUrl, boolean reliable) {
+		try {
+			this.endpoint = (new URI(queueUrl)).getHost();
+		} catch (URISyntaxException e) {
+			throw new IllegalArgumentException("Illegal value for queueUrl: "+queueUrl);
+		}
 		this.queueUrl = queueUrl;
 		this.reliable = reliable;
 		this.sleepTime = 100;
@@ -79,6 +87,8 @@ public void open(
 		queue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<Message>();
 		try {
 			sqs = new AmazonSQSAsyncClient(new PropertiesCredentials(SqsQueueSpout.class.getResourceAsStream("/AwsCredentials.properties")));
+			// Overrides the default endpoint for this client ("sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com").
+			sqs.setEndpoint(endpoint);
 		} catch (IOException ioe) {
 			throw new RuntimeException("Couldn't load AWS credentials", ioe);
 		}