diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index ca1737a..8760a65 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ Added
   JPG. In the newly created settings dialog, this behaviour can be
   changed to always use PNG (the former behaviour) always JPG.
 
+Fixed
+-----
+
+* Fixed a bug where the binary data of deleted images would still hang
+  around in the bee file.
+
 
 0.3.0 - 2023-11-23
 ==================
diff --git a/beeref/fileio/sql.py b/beeref/fileio/sql.py
index 7768370..c085c75 100644
--- a/beeref/fileio/sql.py
+++ b/beeref/fileio/sql.py
@@ -261,6 +261,7 @@ class SQLiteIO:
 
     def delete_items(self, to_delete):
         self.exmany('DELETE FROM items WHERE id=?', to_delete)
+        self.exmany('DELETE FROM sqlar WHERE item_id=?', to_delete)
         self.connection.commit()
 
     def insert_item(self, item):
diff --git a/tests/fileio/test_sql.py b/tests/fileio/test_sql.py
index 16656c9..9d43e1b 100644
--- a/tests/fileio/test_sql.py
+++ b/tests/fileio/test_sql.py
@@ -388,8 +388,12 @@ def test_sqliteio_write_removes_nonexisting_pixmap_item(tmpfile, view):
     view.scene.addItem(item)
     io = SQLiteIO(tmpfile, view.scene, create_new=True)
     io.write()
+    assert io.fetchone('SELECT COUNT(*) from items') == (1,)
+    assert io.fetchone('SELECT COUNT(*) from sqlar') == (1,)
 
     view.scene.removeItem(item)
+
+    io = SQLiteIO(tmpfile, view.scene, create_new=False)
     io.create_new = False
     io.write()