diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix
index 637a8713904..7d445fa0951 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/containers.nix
@@ -676,7 +676,7 @@ in
     # Generate /etc/hosts entries for the containers.
     networking.extraHosts = concatStrings (mapAttrsToList (name: cfg: optionalString (cfg.localAddress != null)
       ''
-        ${cfg.localAddress} ${name}.containers
+        ${head (splitString "/" cfg.localAddress)} ${name}.containers
       '') config.containers);
 
     networking.dhcpcd.denyInterfaces = [ "ve-*" "vb-*" ];
diff --git a/nixos/tests/containers-hosts.nix b/nixos/tests/containers-hosts.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c7a85f190a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nixos/tests/containers-hosts.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+# Test for NixOS' container support.
+
+import ./make-test.nix ({ pkgs, ...} : {
+  name = "containers-hosts";
+  meta = with pkgs.stdenv.lib.maintainers; {
+    maintainers = [ montag451 ];
+  };
+
+  machine =
+    { config, pkgs, lib, ... }:
+    {
+      virtualisation.memorySize = 256;
+      virtualisation.vlans = [];
+
+      networking.bridges.br0.interfaces = [];
+      networking.interfaces.br0 = {
+        ip4 = [ { address = "10.11.0.254"; prefixLength = 24; } ];
+      };
+
+      # Force /etc/hosts to be the only source for host name resolution
+      environment.etc."nsswitch.conf".text = lib.mkForce ''
+        hosts: files
+      '';
+
+      containers.simple = {
+        autoStart = true;
+        privateNetwork = true;
+        localAddress = "10.10.0.1";
+        hostAddress = "10.10.0.254";
+
+        config = {};
+      };
+
+      containers.netmask = {
+        autoStart = true;
+        privateNetwork = true;
+        hostBridge = "br0";
+        localAddress = "10.11.0.1/24";
+
+        config = {};
+      };
+    };
+
+  testScript = ''
+    startAll;
+    $machine->waitForUnit("default.target");
+
+    # Ping the containers using the entries added in /etc/hosts
+    $machine->succeed("ping -n -c 1 simple.containers");
+    $machine->succeed("ping -n -c 1 netmask.containers");
+  '';
+})