diff --git a/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/internals/IOAppPlatform.scala b/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/internals/IOAppPlatform.scala
index ed432b9ea1..4f072c019e 100644
--- a/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/internals/IOAppPlatform.scala
+++ b/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/internals/IOAppPlatform.scala
@@ -27,7 +27,10 @@ private[effect] object IOAppPlatform {
       // Return naturally from main. This allows any non-daemon
       // threads to gracefully complete their work, and managed
       // environments to execute their own shutdown hooks.
-      ()
+      if (NonDaemonThreadLogger.isEnabled())
+        new NonDaemonThreadLogger().start()
+      else
+        ()
     } else {
       sys.exit(code)
     }
diff --git a/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/internals/NonDaemonThreadLogger.scala b/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/internals/NonDaemonThreadLogger.scala
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b29718c0ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/jvm/src/main/scala/cats/effect/internals/NonDaemonThreadLogger.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2017-2019 The Typelevel Cats-effect Project Developers
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package cats.effect.internals
+
+import cats.syntax.all._
+import scala.collection.mutable.ListBuffer
+
+private[internals] object NonDaemonThreadLogger {
+
+  /** Whether or not we should check for non-daemon threads on jvm exit */
+  def isEnabled(): Boolean =
+    Option(System.getProperty("cats.effect.logNonDaemonThreadsOnExit")).map(_.toLowerCase()) match {
+      case Some(value) => value.equalsIgnoreCase("true")
+      case None        => true // default to enabled
+    }
+
+  /** Time to sleep between checking for non-daemon threads present */
+  def sleepIntervalMillis: Long =
+    Option(System.getProperty("cats.effect.logNonDaemonThreads.sleepIntervalMillis"))
+      .flatMap(time => Either.catchOnly[NumberFormatException](time.toLong).toOption)
+      .getOrElse(10000L)
+}
+
+private[internals] class NonDaemonThreadLogger extends Thread("cats-effect-nondaemon-thread-logger") {
+
+  setDaemon(true)
+
+  override def run(): Unit = {
+    var done = false
+    while (!done) {
+      Thread.sleep(NonDaemonThreadLogger.sleepIntervalMillis)
+
+      val runningThreads = detectThreads()
+      if (runningThreads.isEmpty) {
+        // This is probably impossible, as we are supposed to be a *daemon* thread, so the jvm should exit by itself
+        done = true
+      } else {
+        printThreads(runningThreads)
+      }
+
+    }
+  }
+  private[this] def detectThreads(): List[String] = {
+    val threads = Thread.getAllStackTraces().keySet()
+    val nonDaemons = ListBuffer[String]()
+    threads.forEach { t =>
+      if (!t.isDaemon)
+        nonDaemons += s" - ${t.getId}: ${t}"
+    }
+    nonDaemons.toList
+  }
+
+  private[this] def printThreads(threads: List[String]) = {
+    val msg = threads.mkString("Non-daemon threads currently preventing JVM termination:", "\n - ", "")
+    System.err.println(msg)
+  }
+}