diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 0fba31f7..416b7f28 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -304,6 +304,12 @@ dependencies = [
  "alloc-no-stdlib",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "allocator-api2"
+version = "0.2.16"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "0942ffc6dcaadf03badf6e6a2d0228460359d5e34b57ccdc720b7382dfbd5ec5"
+
 [[package]]
 name = "android-tzdata"
 version = "0.1.1"
@@ -1221,27 +1227,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "subtle",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "dirs-next"
-version = "2.0.0"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "b98cf8ebf19c3d1b223e151f99a4f9f0690dca41414773390fc824184ac833e1"
-dependencies = [
- "cfg-if",
- "dirs-sys-next",
-]
-
-[[package]]
-name = "dirs-sys-next"
-version = "0.1.2"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "4ebda144c4fe02d1f7ea1a7d9641b6fc6b580adcfa024ae48797ecdeb6825b4d"
-dependencies = [
- "libc",
- "redox_users",
- "winapi",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "doc-comment"
 version = "0.3.3"
@@ -1546,6 +1531,10 @@ name = "hashbrown"
 version = "0.14.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "2c6201b9ff9fd90a5a3bac2e56a830d0caa509576f0e503818ee82c181b3437a"
+dependencies = [
+ "ahash 0.8.3",
+ "allocator-api2",
+]
 
 [[package]]
 name = "heck"
@@ -1601,6 +1590,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "digest",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "home"
+version = "0.5.5"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "5444c27eef6923071f7ebcc33e3444508466a76f7a2b93da00ed6e19f30c1ddb"
+dependencies = [
+ "windows-sys 0.48.0",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "http"
 version = "0.2.9"
@@ -1932,9 +1930,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "k8s-openapi"
-version = "0.18.0"
+version = "0.19.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "cd990069640f9db34b3b0f7a1afc62a05ffaa3be9b66aa3c313f58346df7f788"
+checksum = "95578de7d6eac4fba42114bc751e38c59a739968769df1be56feba6f17fd148e"
 dependencies = [
  "base64 0.21.2",
  "bytes",
@@ -1946,9 +1944,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "kube"
-version = "0.84.0"
+version = "0.85.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "14bd236a6f6ddeac3fefa2863eb4e363cb3a2c49d66619e181b5b8f8f0787575"
+checksum = "a189cb8721a47de68d883040713bbb9c956763d784fcf066828018d32c180b96"
 dependencies = [
  "k8s-openapi",
  "kube-client",
@@ -1959,16 +1957,16 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "kube-client"
-version = "0.84.0"
+version = "0.85.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "04a28620131ca89b2509e52f5e1b71bfa3e61a50321836b2ae373bc18e0309e6"
+checksum = "98989b6e1f27695afe22aa29c94136fa06be5e8d28b91222e6dfbe5a460c803f"
 dependencies = [
  "base64 0.20.0",
  "bytes",
  "chrono",
- "dirs-next",
  "either",
  "futures",
+ "home",
  "http",
  "http-body",
  "hyper",
@@ -1995,9 +1993,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "kube-core"
-version = "0.84.0"
+version = "0.85.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "8227a989f1eeee3bcbf045165d6aca462af3744ecd4dfdcfba81051fb7de428e"
+checksum = "c24d23bf764ec9a5652f943442ff062b91fd52318ea6d2fc11115f19d8c84d13"
 dependencies = [
  "chrono",
  "form_urlencoded",
@@ -2013,9 +2011,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "kube-derive"
-version = "0.84.0"
+version = "0.85.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "19d227fcf3e12f53ea1a38d4766a8c29f8b27795579e4146464effb88d52dd99"
+checksum = "0bbec4da219dcb02bb32afd762a7ac4dffd47ed92b7e35ac9a7b961d21327117"
 dependencies = [
  "darling",
  "proc-macro2",
@@ -2026,15 +2024,16 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "kube-runtime"
-version = "0.84.0"
+version = "0.85.0"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "6834a4a1f53a8528d5f346cdd141a77dbda31beb33dab4bf24fa4ecf6c508744"
+checksum = "381224caa8a6fc16f8251cf1fd6d8678cdf5366f33000a923e4c54192e4b25b5"
 dependencies = [
  "ahash 0.8.3",
  "async-trait",
  "backoff",
  "derivative",
  "futures",
+ "hashbrown 0.14.0",
  "json-patch",
  "k8s-openapi",
  "kube-client",
@@ -2659,17 +2658,6 @@ dependencies = [
  "bitflags",
 ]
 
-[[package]]
-name = "redox_users"
-version = "0.4.3"
-source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "b033d837a7cf162d7993aded9304e30a83213c648b6e389db233191f891e5c2b"
-dependencies = [
- "getrandom",
- "redox_syscall",
- "thiserror",
-]
-
 [[package]]
 name = "regex"
 version = "1.8.3"
diff --git a/agent/Cargo.toml b/agent/Cargo.toml
index 272e05b4..eb559168 100644
--- a/agent/Cargo.toml
+++ b/agent/Cargo.toml
@@ -16,8 +16,8 @@ lazy_static = "1"
 tracing = "0.1"
 
 # k8s-openapi must match the version required by kube and enable a k8s version feature
-k8s-openapi = { version = "0.18", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
-kube = { version = "0.84", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime", "rustls-tls" ] }
+k8s-openapi = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
+kube = { version = "0.85", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime", "rustls-tls" ] }
 
 semver = { version = "1.0", features = [ "serde" ] }
 serde = { version = "1", features = [ "derive" ] }
diff --git a/agent/src/main.rs b/agent/src/main.rs
index fdaaf0d4..6c2fbcb2 100644
--- a/agent/src/main.rs
+++ b/agent/src/main.rs
@@ -65,7 +65,8 @@ async fn run_agent() -> Result<()> {
         .fields(format!("metadata.name={}", associated_bottlerocketshadow_name).as_str());
     let brs_store = reflector::store::Writer::<BottlerocketShadow>::default();
     let brs_reader = brs_store.as_reader();
-    let brs_reflector = reflector::reflector(brs_store, watcher(brss, brs_config));
+    let brs_reflector =
+        reflector::reflector(brs_store, watcher(brss, brs_config).default_backoff());
     let brs_drainer = brs_reflector
         .touched_objects()
         .filter_map(|x| async move { std::result::Result::ok(x) })
@@ -80,7 +81,8 @@ async fn run_agent() -> Result<()> {
     let nodes: Api<Node> = Api::all(k8s_client.clone());
     let nodes_store = reflector::store::Writer::<Node>::default();
     let node_reader = nodes_store.as_reader();
-    let node_reflector = reflector::reflector(nodes_store, watcher(nodes, node_config));
+    let node_reflector =
+        reflector::reflector(nodes_store, watcher(nodes, node_config).default_backoff());
     let node_drainer = node_reflector
         .touched_objects()
         .filter_map(|x| async move { std::result::Result::ok(x) })
diff --git a/apiserver/Cargo.toml b/apiserver/Cargo.toml
index a7c7c629..f0eeaa0b 100644
--- a/apiserver/Cargo.toml
+++ b/apiserver/Cargo.toml
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ tracing = "0.1"
 tracing-actix-web = "0.7"
 
 # k8s-openapi must match the version required by kube and enable a k8s version feature
-k8s-openapi = { version = "0.18", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
-kube = { version = "0.84", default-features = false, features = [ "client", "derive", "runtime", "rustls-tls" ] }
+k8s-openapi = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
+kube = { version = "0.85", default-features = false, features = [ "client", "derive", "runtime", "rustls-tls" ] }
 
 async-trait = "0.1"
 futures = "0.3"
diff --git a/apiserver/src/api/mod.rs b/apiserver/src/api/mod.rs
index 8c8c926d..783e9997 100644
--- a/apiserver/src/api/mod.rs
+++ b/apiserver/src/api/mod.rs
@@ -131,7 +131,8 @@ pub async fn run_server<T: 'static + BottlerocketShadowClient>(
         watcher(
             pods,
             Config::default().labels(&format!("{}={}", LABEL_COMPONENT, AGENT)),
-        ),
+        )
+        .default_backoff(),
     );
     let drainer = pod_reflector.touched_objects()
         .filter_map(|x| async move {
diff --git a/controller/Cargo.toml b/controller/Cargo.toml
index e95d79c7..b79676c2 100644
--- a/controller/Cargo.toml
+++ b/controller/Cargo.toml
@@ -18,8 +18,8 @@ semver = "1.0"
 serde = "1"
 serde_plain = "1"
 # k8s-openapi must match the version required by kube and enable a k8s version feature
-k8s-openapi = { version = "0.18", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
-kube = { version = "0.84", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime", "rustls-tls" ] }
+k8s-openapi = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
+kube = { version = "0.85", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime", "rustls-tls" ] }
 models = { path = "../models", version = "0.1.0" }
 opentelemetry = { version = "0.18", features = ["rt-tokio-current-thread"] }
 opentelemetry-prometheus = "0.11"
diff --git a/controller/src/controller.rs b/controller/src/controller.rs
index 73ff545d..ae46dfac 100644
--- a/controller/src/controller.rs
+++ b/controller/src/controller.rs
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@ use tracing::{event, instrument, Level};
 // Defines the length time after which the controller will take actions.
 const ACTION_INTERVAL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(2);
 
+// The interval between control loop polls if no nodes are detected.
+const CANNOT_FIND_ANY_NODES_WAIT_INTERVAL: Duration = Duration::from_secs(10);
+
 // Defines environment variable name used to fetch max concurrent update number.
 const MAX_CONCURRENT_UPDATE_ENV_VAR: &str = "MAX_CONCURRENT_UPDATE";
 
@@ -278,6 +281,17 @@ impl<T: BottlerocketShadowClient> BrupopController<T> {
         // On every iteration of the event loop, we reconstruct the state of the controller and determine its
         // next actions. This is to ensure that the operator would behave consistently even if suddenly restarted.
         loop {
+            if self.all_brss().is_empty() {
+                event!(
+                    Level::INFO,
+                    "Nothing to do: The bottlerocket-update-operator is not aware of any BottlerocketShadow objects. \
+                    Is the bottlerocket-shadow CRD installed? Are nodes labelled so that the agent is deployed to them? \
+                    See the project's README for more information.",
+                );
+                sleep(CANNOT_FIND_ANY_NODES_WAIT_INTERVAL).await;
+                continue;
+            }
+
             let active_set = self.active_brs_set();
             event!(Level::TRACE, ?active_set, "Found active set of nodes.");
 
diff --git a/controller/src/main.rs b/controller/src/main.rs
index 0f3c90d5..d4e958ee 100644
--- a/controller/src/main.rs
+++ b/controller/src/main.rs
@@ -64,7 +64,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     let exporter = opentelemetry_prometheus::exporter(controller).init();
 
     // Setup and run a reflector, ensuring that `BottlerocketShadow` updates are reflected to the controller.
-    let brs_reflector = reflector::reflector(brs_store, watcher(brss, Config::default()));
+    let brs_reflector = reflector::reflector(
+        brs_store,
+        watcher(brss, Config::default()).default_backoff(),
+    );
     let brs_drainer = brs_reflector
         .touched_objects()
         .filter_map(|x| async move { std::result::Result::ok(x) })
@@ -80,7 +83,10 @@ async fn main() -> Result<()> {
     let nodes: Api<Node> = Api::all(k8s_client.clone());
     let nodes_store = reflector::store::Writer::<Node>::default();
     let node_reader = nodes_store.as_reader();
-    let node_reflector = reflector::reflector(nodes_store, watcher(nodes, Config::default()));
+    let node_reflector = reflector::reflector(
+        nodes_store,
+        watcher(nodes, Config::default()).default_backoff(),
+    );
     let node_drainer = node_reflector
         .touched_objects()
         .filter_map(|x| async move { std::result::Result::ok(x) })
diff --git a/deploy/Cargo.toml b/deploy/Cargo.toml
index 3cc1f7ed..a6cad8b6 100644
--- a/deploy/Cargo.toml
+++ b/deploy/Cargo.toml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ license = "Apache-2.0 OR MIT"
 [build-dependencies]
 models = { path = "../models", version = "0.1.0" }
 dotenv = "0.15"
-kube = { version = "0.84", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime" ] }
+kube = { version = "0.85", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime" ] }
 serde_yaml = "0.9"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
diff --git a/integ/Cargo.toml b/integ/Cargo.toml
index 484f78ae..6a4b4005 100644
--- a/integ/Cargo.toml
+++ b/integ/Cargo.toml
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ tokio-retry = "0.3"
 uuid = { version = "0.8", default-features = false, features = ["serde", "v4"] }
 
 # k8s-openapi must match the version required by kube and enable a k8s version feature
-k8s-openapi = { version = "0.18", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
-kube = { version = "0.84", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime" ] }
+k8s-openapi = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
+kube = { version = "0.85", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "runtime" ] }
 
 
 [dev-dependencies]
diff --git a/models/Cargo.toml b/models/Cargo.toml
index 3b9b1814..45b9ce8b 100644
--- a/models/Cargo.toml
+++ b/models/Cargo.toml
@@ -10,8 +10,8 @@ async-trait = "0.1"
 chrono = { version = "0.4", default-features = false, features = ["std"] }
 futures = "0.3"
 # k8s-openapi must match the version required by kube and enable a k8s version feature
-k8s-openapi = { version = "0.18", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
-kube = { version = "0.84", default-features = false, features = [ "client", "derive", "runtime" ] }
+k8s-openapi = { version = "0.19", default-features = false, features = ["v1_24"] }
+kube = { version = "0.85", default-features = false, features = [ "client", "derive", "runtime" ] }
 
 lazy_static = "1.4"
 maplit = "1.0"