diff --git a/hw/display/virtio-gpu-virgl.c b/hw/display/virtio-gpu-virgl.c
index 362828f54e..a65fca9c62 100644
--- a/hw/display/virtio-gpu-virgl.c
+++ b/hw/display/virtio-gpu-virgl.c
@@ -1199,9 +1199,9 @@ int virtio_gpu_virgl_init(VirtIOGPU *g)
     }
 
 #if VIRGL_VERSION_MAJOR >= 1
-    gl->cmdq_resume_bh = aio_bh_new(qemu_get_aio_context(),
-                                    virtio_gpu_virgl_resume_cmdq_bh,
-                                    g);
+    gl->cmdq_resume_bh = virtio_bh_io_new_guarded(DEVICE(g),
+                                                  virtio_gpu_virgl_resume_cmdq_bh,
+                                                  g);
 #endif
 
     return 0;
diff --git a/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c b/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
index 11a7a85750..7ab5221fbc 100644
--- a/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
+++ b/hw/display/virtio-gpu.c
@@ -1514,9 +1514,9 @@ void virtio_gpu_device_realize(DeviceState *qdev, Error **errp)
 
     g->ctrl_vq = virtio_get_queue(vdev, 0);
     g->cursor_vq = virtio_get_queue(vdev, 1);
-    g->ctrl_bh = virtio_bh_new_guarded(qdev, virtio_gpu_ctrl_bh, g);
-    g->cursor_bh = virtio_bh_new_guarded(qdev, virtio_gpu_cursor_bh, g);
-    g->reset_bh = qemu_bh_new(virtio_gpu_reset_bh, g);
+    g->ctrl_bh = virtio_bh_io_new_guarded(qdev, virtio_gpu_ctrl_bh, g);
+    g->cursor_bh = virtio_bh_io_new_guarded(qdev, virtio_gpu_cursor_bh, g);
+    g->reset_bh = virtio_bh_io_new_guarded(qdev, virtio_gpu_reset_bh, g);
     qemu_cond_init(&g->reset_cond);
     QTAILQ_INIT(&g->reslist);
     QTAILQ_INIT(&g->cmdq);
diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio.c b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
index b756f49867..34ef7b86d9 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio.c
@@ -4403,3 +4403,13 @@ QEMUBH *virtio_bh_new_guarded_full(DeviceState *dev,
     return qemu_bh_new_full(cb, opaque, name,
                             &transport->mem_reentrancy_guard);
 }
+
+QEMUBH *virtio_bh_io_new_guarded_full(DeviceState *dev,
+                                      QEMUBHFunc *cb, void *opaque,
+                                      const char *name)
+{
+    DeviceState *transport = qdev_get_parent_bus(dev)->parent;
+
+    return aio_bh_new_full(iohandler_get_aio_context(), cb, opaque, name,
+                           &transport->mem_reentrancy_guard);
+}
diff --git a/include/hw/virtio/virtio.h b/include/hw/virtio/virtio.h
index 14c2afed33..d6c9fdf0e0 100644
--- a/include/hw/virtio/virtio.h
+++ b/include/hw/virtio/virtio.h
@@ -543,4 +543,14 @@ QEMUBH *virtio_bh_new_guarded_full(DeviceState *dev,
 #define virtio_bh_new_guarded(dev, cb, opaque) \
     virtio_bh_new_guarded_full((dev), (cb), (opaque), (stringify(cb)))
 
+/*
+ * The "_io" variant runs BH only on a main-loop thread, while generic BH
+ * may run on a vCPU thread.
+ */
+QEMUBH *virtio_bh_io_new_guarded_full(DeviceState *dev,
+                                      QEMUBHFunc *cb, void *opaque,
+                                      const char *name);
+#define virtio_bh_io_new_guarded(dev, cb, opaque) \
+    virtio_bh_io_new_guarded_full((dev), (cb), (opaque), (stringify(cb)))
+
 #endif