diff --git a/app/main.cjsx b/app/main.cjsx
index c7b31595c8..5bc6d393aa 100644
--- a/app/main.cjsx
+++ b/app/main.cjsx
@@ -3,12 +3,14 @@ ReactDOM = require 'react-dom'
 apiClient = require 'panoptes-client/lib/api-client'
 { applyRouterMiddleware, Router, browserHistory } = require 'react-router'
 useScroll = require 'react-router-scroll/lib/useScroll'
+require('./monkeypatchNode')
 { routes } = require './router'
 style = require '../css/main.styl'
 { Provider } = require('react-redux')
 initStore = require('./redux/init-store').default
 initSentry = require('./lib/init-sentry').default
 
+
 # register locales
 `import counterpart from 'counterpart';`
 `import locales from './locales';`
diff --git a/app/monkeypatchNode.js b/app/monkeypatchNode.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..77425ac800
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/monkeypatchNode.js
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+/*
+Monkey-patch node.removeChild and node.insertBefore,
+to work around a crashing bug with Google Translate.
+https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/11538#issuecomment-417504600
+*/
+if (typeof Node === 'function' && Node.prototype) {
+    const originalRemoveChild = Node.prototype.removeChild;
+    Node.prototype.removeChild = function(child) {
+      if (child.parentNode !== this) {
+        if (console) {
+          console.error('Cannot remove a child from a different parent', child, this);
+        }
+        return child;
+      }
+      return originalRemoveChild.apply(this, arguments);
+    }
+  
+    const originalInsertBefore = Node.prototype.insertBefore;
+    Node.prototype.insertBefore = function(newNode, referenceNode) {
+      if (referenceNode && referenceNode.parentNode !== this) {
+        if (console) {
+          console.error('Cannot insert before a reference node from a different parent', referenceNode, this);
+        }
+        return newNode;
+      }
+      return originalInsertBefore.apply(this, arguments);
+    }
+  }