diff --git a/LTA/ltastorageoverview/lib/ingesteventhandler.py b/LTA/ltastorageoverview/lib/ingesteventhandler.py
index 75d927c626feffae880f5486d885b2e590a1c6da..58d743a5aca61be3404a7b8383ea02d1a88c14b3 100755
--- a/LTA/ltastorageoverview/lib/ingesteventhandler.py
+++ b/LTA/ltastorageoverview/lib/ingesteventhandler.py
@@ -66,13 +66,13 @@ class IngestEventHandler(IngestBusListener):
 
     def _markDirectoryForAVisit(self, dir_id):
         '''
-        update the directory's last visit time to now-VISIT_INTERVAL,
+        update the directory's last visit time to unix-epoch (which is the lowest possible visit timestamp),
         so that it appears in the visitStats which are used by the scraper to determine the next directory to be visited.
         :param int dir_id: the id of the directory
         :return: None
         '''
         with store.LTAStorageDb(self._dbcreds) as db:
-            return db.updateDirectoryLastVisitTime(dir_id, datetime.utcnow() - VISIT_INTERVAL)
+            return db.updateDirectoryLastVisitTime(dir_id, datetime.fromtimestamp(0))
 
     def _get_site_from_db(self, srm_url):
         """