diff --git a/lib/mu-container.c b/lib/mu-container.c
index fbe612ff..f0743ac5 100644
--- a/lib/mu-container.c
+++ b/lib/mu-container.c
@@ -275,8 +275,6 @@ mu_container_splice_children (MuContainer *c, MuContainer *sibling)
 	children = sibling->child;
 	sibling->child = NULL;
 
-	c = mu_container_remove_sibling (c, sibling);
-
 	return mu_container_append_siblings (c, children);
 }
 
diff --git a/lib/mu-container.h b/lib/mu-container.h
index 9f2686a8..6cd76889 100644
--- a/lib/mu-container.h
+++ b/lib/mu-container.h
@@ -128,14 +128,12 @@ MuContainer* mu_container_remove_child (MuContainer *c, MuContainer *child);
 MuContainer* mu_container_remove_sibling (MuContainer *c, MuContainer *sibling);
 
 /**
- * promote sibling's children to be this container's siblings and
- * remove the sibling
+ * promote sibling's children to be this container's siblings
  *
  * @param c a container instance
  * @param sibling a sibling of this container
  *
- * @return the container with the sibling's children promoted and the
- * sibling itself removed
+ * @return the container with the sibling's children promoted
  */
 
 MuContainer* mu_container_splice_children (MuContainer *c,
diff --git a/lib/mu-threader.c b/lib/mu-threader.c
index c42e166c..1bb4c0f5 100644
--- a/lib/mu-threader.c
+++ b/lib/mu-threader.c
@@ -433,10 +433,12 @@ prune_empty_containers (MuContainer *root_set)
 
 	/* and prune the root_set itself... */
 	for (cur = root_set; cur; cur = cur->next) {
-		if (cur->flags & MU_CONTAINER_FLAG_DELETE)
+		if (cur->flags & MU_CONTAINER_FLAG_DELETE) {
 			root_set = mu_container_remove_sibling (root_set, cur);
-		else if (cur->flags & MU_CONTAINER_FLAG_SPLICE)
+		} else if (cur->flags & MU_CONTAINER_FLAG_SPLICE) {
 			root_set = mu_container_splice_children (root_set, cur);
+			root_set = mu_container_remove_sibling (root_set, cur);
+		}
 	}
 
 	return root_set;