Methods, systems, and computer program products are included for processing one or more buffers in a networking queue. An example method includes receiving one or more transmit requests or receive requests from a guest running on a virtual machine. The method also includes detecting that a networking backend has stopped processing buffers from a networking queue, each queued buffer corresponding to a transmit request or receive request. The method further includes in response to detecting that the networking backend has stopped processing buffers from the networking queue, flushing one or more buffers stored in the networking queue. A buffer corresponding to a receive request may be flushed by storing a set of dummy packets into the buffer. In contrast, a buffer corresponding to a transmit request may be flushed by discarding the buffer.