diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 35e07dcb412..737c07b1bab 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ Charles Cloud
 Charnjit SiNGH (CCSJ)
 Chris Lamb
 Christian Boelsen
+Christian Fetzer
 Christian Theunert
 Christian Tismer
 Christopher Gilling
diff --git a/changelog/3711.feature.rst b/changelog/3711.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..06a7f5355c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/3711.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add support for Unix shell-style wildcards to the ``--ignore`` parameter.
diff --git a/doc/en/example/pythoncollection.rst b/doc/en/example/pythoncollection.rst
index 8dcaa97d715..5bfd56955d7 100644
--- a/doc/en/example/pythoncollection.rst
+++ b/doc/en/example/pythoncollection.rst
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ you will see that ``pytest`` only collects test-modules, which do not match the
 
     ========================= 5 passed in 0.02 seconds =========================
 
+The ``--ignore`` option supports Unix shell-style wildcards.
+
 Deselect tests during test collection
 -------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/src/_pytest/main.py b/src/_pytest/main.py
index d0d826bb653..7c4cb294362 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/main.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/main.py
@@ -293,7 +293,9 @@ def pytest_ignore_collect(path, config):
     if excludeopt:
         ignore_paths.extend([py.path.local(x) for x in excludeopt])
 
-    if py.path.local(path) in ignore_paths:
+    if any(
+        py.path.local(path).fnmatch(str(ignore_path)) for ignore_path in ignore_paths
+    ):
         return True
 
     allow_in_venv = config.getoption("collect_in_virtualenv")
diff --git a/testing/test_session.py b/testing/test_session.py
index d64a1a51978..78872a0f4e6 100644
--- a/testing/test_session.py
+++ b/testing/test_session.py
@@ -253,6 +253,21 @@ def test_exclude(testdir):
     result.stdout.fnmatch_lines(["*1 passed*"])
 
 
+def test_exclude_glob(testdir):
+    hellodir = testdir.mkdir("hello")
+    hellodir.join("test_hello.py").write("x y syntaxerror")
+    hello2dir = testdir.mkdir("hello2")
+    hello2dir.join("test_hello2.py").write("x y syntaxerror")
+    hello3dir = testdir.mkdir("hallo3")
+    hello3dir.join("test_hello3.py").write("x y syntaxerror")
+    subdir = testdir.mkdir("sub")
+    subdir.join("test_hello4.py").write("x y syntaxerror")
+    testdir.makepyfile(test_ok="def test_pass(): pass")
+    result = testdir.runpytest("--ignore=*h[ea]llo*")
+    assert result.ret == 0
+    result.stdout.fnmatch_lines(["*1 passed*"])
+
+
 def test_deselect(testdir):
     testdir.makepyfile(
         test_a="""