diff --git a/jaydebeapi/__init__.py b/jaydebeapi/__init__.py
index a890c3d..5167920 100644
--- a/jaydebeapi/__init__.py
+++ b/jaydebeapi/__init__.py
@@ -617,10 +617,18 @@ def _unknownSqlTypeConverter(rs, col):
     return rs.getObject(col)
 
 def _to_datetime(rs, col):
-    java_val = rs.getTimestamp(col)
+    import jpype
+    SQLException = jpype.java.sql.SQLException
+    try:
+        java_val = rs.getTimestamp(col)
+    except:
+        java_val = bytes(rs.getBytes(col)).decode('utf-8')
     if not java_val:
         return
-    d = datetime.datetime.strptime(str(java_val)[:19], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
+    try:
+        d = datetime.datetime.strptime(str(java_val)[:19], "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
+    except ValueError:
+        return ""
     d = d.replace(microsecond=int(str(java_val.getNanos())[:6]))
     return str(d)