diff --git a/lib/cli.js b/lib/cli.js
index 20f2b67b7..b613666c8 100644
--- a/lib/cli.js
+++ b/lib/cli.js
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ import process from 'node:process';
 
 import arrify from 'arrify';
 import ciParallelVars from 'ci-parallel-vars';
-import {deleteAsync} from 'del';
 import figures from 'figures';
 import yargs from 'yargs';
 import {hideBin} from 'yargs/helpers'; // eslint-disable-line n/file-extension-in-import
@@ -261,11 +260,23 @@ export default async function loadCli() { // eslint-disable-line complexity
 	const {nonSemVerExperiments: experiments, projectDir} = conf;
 	if (resetCache) {
 		const cacheDir = path.join(projectDir, 'node_modules', '.cache', 'ava');
-
 		try {
-			const deletedFilePaths = await deleteAsync('*', {cwd: cacheDir});
+			let entries;
+			try {
+				entries = fs.readdirSync(cacheDir);
+			} catch (error) {
+				if (error.code === 'ENOENT') {
+					entries = [];
+				} else {
+					throw error;
+				}
+			}
+
+			for (const entry of entries) {
+				fs.rmSync(path.join(cacheDir, entry), {recursive: true, force: true});
+			}
 
-			if (deletedFilePaths.length === 0) {
+			if (entries.length === 0) {
 				console.log(`\n${chalk.green(figures.tick)} No cache files to remove`);
 			} else {
 				console.log(`\n${chalk.green(figures.tick)} Removed AVA cache files in ${cacheDir}`);
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 3e5caa15c..9b1d34427 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -100,7 +100,6 @@
 		"concordance": "^5.0.4",
 		"currently-unhandled": "^0.4.1",
 		"debug": "^4.3.4",
-		"del": "^7.0.0",
 		"emittery": "^1.0.1",
 		"figures": "^5.0.0",
 		"globby": "^13.1.3",
diff --git a/test-tap/api.js b/test-tap/api.js
index 0d0c271e5..b395d81f8 100644
--- a/test-tap/api.js
+++ b/test-tap/api.js
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ import path from 'node:path';
 import {fileURLToPath} from 'node:url';
 
 import ciInfo from 'ci-info';
-import {deleteSync} from 'del';
 import {test} from 'tap';
 
 import Api from '../lib/api.js';
@@ -380,7 +379,7 @@ for (const opt of options) {
 	});
 
 	test(`caching is enabled by default - workerThreads: ${opt.workerThreads}`, async t => {
-		deleteSync(path.join(__dirname, 'fixture/caching/node_modules'));
+		fs.rmSync(path.join(__dirname, 'fixture/caching/node_modules'), {recursive: true, force: true});
 
 		const api = await apiCreator({
 			...opt,
@@ -400,7 +399,7 @@ for (const opt of options) {
 	});
 
 	test(`caching can be disabled - workerThreads: ${opt.workerThreads}`, async t => {
-		deleteSync(path.join(__dirname, 'fixture/caching/node_modules'));
+		fs.rmSync(path.join(__dirname, 'fixture/caching/node_modules'), {recursive: true, force: true});
 
 		const api = await apiCreator({
 			...opt,