diff --git a/ci/install_travis.sh b/ci/install_travis.sh
index 1b1eae7b44e45..996061ac29af8 100755
--- a/ci/install_travis.sh
+++ b/ci/install_travis.sh
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ else
     echo "pip installs"
     REQ="ci/requirements-${TRAVIS_PYTHON_VERSION}${JOB_TAG}.pip"
     if [ -e ${REQ} ]; then
-        pip install -r $REQ
+        pip install --upgrade -r $REQ
     fi
 
     # remove any installed pandas package
diff --git a/ci/requirements-2.7.build b/ci/requirements-2.7.build
index 6c9965ac0305e..eca8460468d34 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-2.7.build
+++ b/ci/requirements-2.7.build
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-dateutil=2.1
+python-dateutil=2.4.1
 pytz=2013b
 numpy=1.9.3
 cython=0.19.1
diff --git a/ci/requirements-2.7.pip b/ci/requirements-2.7.pip
index 54596ad2a8169..9334ca9e03cc1 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-2.7.pip
+++ b/ci/requirements-2.7.pip
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 blosc
 httplib2
-google-api-python-client == 1.2
-python-gflags == 2.0
-oauth2client == 1.5.0
+google-api-python-client==1.2
+python-gflags==2.0
+oauth2client==1.5.0
 pathlib
 py
diff --git a/ci/requirements-2.7.run b/ci/requirements-2.7.run
index 6768a75f5c285..0c1132eaa62d3 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-2.7.run
+++ b/ci/requirements-2.7.run
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-dateutil=2.1
+python-dateutil=2.4.1
 pytz=2013b
 numpy=1.9.3
 xlwt=0.7.5
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.build b/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.build
index 9558cf00ddf5c..8dbecfc9e9292 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.build
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.build
@@ -1,4 +1,2 @@
-python-dateutil
-pytz
 numpy
 cython
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.pip b/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.pip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..8a7f51f1bea9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.pip
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+python-dateutil>=2.5.0
diff --git a/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.run b/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.run
index 80e12ac3fed34..49c336cae40b1 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.run
+++ b/ci/requirements-3.5_OSX.run
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-python-dateutil
 pytz
 numpy
 openpyxl
diff --git a/pandas/compat/__init__.py b/pandas/compat/__init__.py
index aade3b8411bb9..24de4985d63f3 100644
--- a/pandas/compat/__init__.py
+++ b/pandas/compat/__init__.py
@@ -325,6 +325,10 @@ def raise_with_traceback(exc, traceback=Ellipsis):
     def parse_date(timestr, *args, **kwargs):
         timestr = bytes(timestr)
         return _date_parser.parse(timestr, *args, **kwargs)
+elif PY2 and LooseVersion(dateutil.__version__) == '2.0':
+    # dateutil brokenness
+    raise Exception('dateutil 2.0 incompatible with Python 2.x, you must '
+                    'install version 1.5 or 2.1+!')
 else:
     parse_date = _date_parser.parse
 
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_parsers.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_parsers.py
index f32dfd37e837c..700ec3387d459 100755
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_parsers.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_parsers.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 import re
 import nose
 import platform
+from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
 from multiprocessing.pool import ThreadPool
 
@@ -1048,12 +1049,20 @@ def test_parse_dates_string(self):
                         'C': [2, 4, 5]}, idx)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(rs, xp)
 
-    def test_yy_format(self):
+    def test_yy_format_with_yearfirst(self):
         data = """date,time,B,C
 090131,0010,1,2
 090228,1020,3,4
 090331,0830,5,6
 """
+
+        # https://github.com/dateutil/dateutil/issues/217
+        import dateutil
+        if dateutil.__version__ >= LooseVersion('2.5.0'):
+            raise nose.SkipTest("testing yearfirst=True not-support"
+                                "on datetutil < 2.5.0 this works but"
+                                "is wrong")
+
         rs = self.read_csv(StringIO(data), index_col=0,
                            parse_dates=[['date', 'time']])
         idx = DatetimeIndex([datetime(2009, 1, 31, 0, 10, 0),
diff --git a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_tslib.py b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_tslib.py
index 937a8fa340348..ecbe2827f5447 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/tests/test_tslib.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/tests/test_tslib.py
@@ -474,6 +474,11 @@ def test_does_not_convert_mixed_integer(self):
                 good_date_string))
 
     def test_parsers(self):
+
+        # https://github.com/dateutil/dateutil/issues/217
+        import dateutil
+        yearfirst = dateutil.__version__ >= LooseVersion('2.5.0')
+
         cases = {'2011-01-01': datetime.datetime(2011, 1, 1),
                  '2Q2005': datetime.datetime(2005, 4, 1),
                  '2Q05': datetime.datetime(2005, 4, 1),
@@ -527,20 +532,26 @@ def test_parsers(self):
                  }
 
         for date_str, expected in compat.iteritems(cases):
-            result1, _, _ = tools.parse_time_string(date_str)
-            result2 = to_datetime(date_str)
-            result3 = to_datetime([date_str])
-            result4 = to_datetime(np.array([date_str], dtype=object))
-            result5 = Timestamp(date_str)
-            result6 = DatetimeIndex([date_str])[0]
-            result7 = date_range(date_str, freq='S', periods=1)
+            result1, _, _ = tools.parse_time_string(date_str,
+                                                    yearfirst=yearfirst)
+            result2 = to_datetime(date_str, yearfirst=yearfirst)
+            result3 = to_datetime([date_str], yearfirst=yearfirst)
+            result4 = to_datetime(np.array([date_str], dtype=object),
+                                  yearfirst=yearfirst)
+            result6 = DatetimeIndex([date_str], yearfirst=yearfirst)[0]
             self.assertEqual(result1, expected)
             self.assertEqual(result2, expected)
             self.assertEqual(result3, expected)
             self.assertEqual(result4, expected)
-            self.assertEqual(result5, expected)
             self.assertEqual(result6, expected)
-            self.assertEqual(result7, expected)
+
+            # these really need to have yearfist, but we don't support
+            if not yearfirst:
+                result5 = Timestamp(date_str)
+                self.assertEqual(result5, expected)
+                result7 = date_range(date_str, freq='S', periods=1,
+                                     yearfirst=yearfirst)
+                self.assertEqual(result7, expected)
 
         # NaT
         result1, _, _ = tools.parse_time_string('NaT')
diff --git a/pandas/tseries/tools.py b/pandas/tseries/tools.py
index bbcb68721a0f2..d413a4a2bf096 100644
--- a/pandas/tseries/tools.py
+++ b/pandas/tseries/tools.py
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta, time
-import sys
-
 import numpy as np
 
 import pandas.lib as lib
@@ -10,17 +8,6 @@
 import pandas.compat as compat
 from pandas.util.decorators import deprecate_kwarg
 
-try:
-    import dateutil
-    # raise exception if dateutil 2.0 install on 2.x platform
-    if (sys.version_info[0] == 2 and
-            dateutil.__version__ == '2.0'):  # pragma: no cover
-        raise Exception('dateutil 2.0 incompatible with Python 2.x, you must '
-                        'install version 1.5 or 2.1+!')
-except ImportError:  # pragma: no cover
-    print('Please install python-dateutil via easy_install or some method!')
-    raise  # otherwise a 2nd import won't show the message
-
 _DATEUTIL_LEXER_SPLIT = None
 try:
     # Since these are private methods from dateutil, it is safely imported