diff --git a/packages/gatsby/src/bootstrap/page-hot-reloader.js b/packages/gatsby/src/bootstrap/page-hot-reloader.js
index c83e335f1084f..6eab902e0ab97 100644
--- a/packages/gatsby/src/bootstrap/page-hot-reloader.js
+++ b/packages/gatsby/src/bootstrap/page-hot-reloader.js
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ emitter.on(`CREATE_NODE`, action => {
 emitter.on(`DELETE_NODE`, action => {
   if (action.payload.internal.type !== `SitePage`) {
     pagesDirty = true
+    // Make a fake API call to trigger `API_RUNNING_QUEUE_EMPTY` being called.
+    // We don't want to call runCreatePages here as there might be work in
+    // progress. So this is a safe way to make sure runCreatePages gets called
+    // at a safe time.
+    apiRunnerNode(`FAKE_API_CALL`)
   }
 })
 
@@ -45,7 +50,7 @@ const runCreatePages = async () => {
     })
     .map(p => p.id)
 
-  const timestamp = new Date().toJSON()
+  const timestamp = Date.now()
 
   await apiRunnerNode(`createPages`, {
     graphql,
diff --git a/packages/gatsby/src/internal-plugins/query-runner/page-query-runner.js b/packages/gatsby/src/internal-plugins/query-runner/page-query-runner.js
index f273ccac1717a..40a9c781a0c55 100644
--- a/packages/gatsby/src/internal-plugins/query-runner/page-query-runner.js
+++ b/packages/gatsby/src/internal-plugins/query-runner/page-query-runner.js
@@ -93,6 +93,15 @@ exports.runQueuedActions = runQueuedActions
 emitter.on(`API_RUNNING_QUEUE_EMPTY`, runQueuedActions)
 
 let seenIdsWithoutDataDependencies = []
+
+// Remove pages from seenIdsWithoutDataDependencies when they're deleted
+// so their query will be run again if they're created again.
+emitter.on(`DELETE_PAGE`, action => {
+  seenIdsWithoutDataDependencies = seenIdsWithoutDataDependencies.filter(
+    p => p !== action.payload.path
+  )
+})
+
 const findIdsWithoutDataDependencies = () => {
   const state = store.getState()
   const allTrackedIds = _.uniq(
diff --git a/packages/gatsby/src/utils/api-runner-node.js b/packages/gatsby/src/utils/api-runner-node.js
index 8c2484231f50f..12a4a74ad7a0a 100644
--- a/packages/gatsby/src/utils/api-runner-node.js
+++ b/packages/gatsby/src/utils/api-runner-node.js
@@ -157,7 +157,11 @@ module.exports = async (api, args = {}, pluginSource) =>
     })
 
     // Check that the API is documented.
-    if (!apiList[api]) {
+    // "FAKE_API_CALL" is used when code needs to trigger something
+    // to happen once the the API queue is empty. Ideally of course
+    // we'd have an API (returning a promise) for that. But this
+    // works nicely in the meantime.
+    if (!apiList[api] && api !== `FAKE_API_CALL`) {
       reporter.panic(`api: "${api}" is not a valid Gatsby api`)
     }