diff --git a/check-needles.py b/check-needles.py
index 864a49bf..6f5755e8 100755
--- a/check-needles.py
+++ b/check-needles.py
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ for testpath in testpaths:
 # now let's do some whitelisting, for awkward cases where we know that
 # we concatenate string literals and stuff
 # versioned backgrounds and release IDs
-for rel in range(8, 10):
+for rel in ["8", "9", "10"]:
     testliterals.append(f"{rel}_background")
     testliterals.append(f"version_{rel}_ident")
 # anaconda id needles, using tell_source