diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs
index 9aee39bd35..9e5697b4cd 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/mgr.rs
@@ -1517,7 +1517,7 @@ impl TenantManager {
             }
         }
 
-        // Phase 5: Shut down the parent shard.
+        // Phase 5: Shut down the parent shard, and erase it from disk
         let (_guard, progress) = completion::channel();
         match parent.shutdown(progress, false).await {
             Ok(()) => {}
@@ -1525,6 +1525,24 @@ impl TenantManager {
                 other.wait().await;
             }
         }
+        let local_tenant_directory = self.conf.tenant_path(&tenant_shard_id);
+        let tmp_path = safe_rename_tenant_dir(&local_tenant_directory)
+            .await
+            .with_context(|| format!("local tenant directory {local_tenant_directory:?} rename"))?;
+        task_mgr::spawn(
+            task_mgr::BACKGROUND_RUNTIME.handle(),
+            TaskKind::MgmtRequest,
+            None,
+            None,
+            "tenant_files_delete",
+            false,
+            async move {
+                fs::remove_dir_all(tmp_path.as_path())
+                    .await
+                    .with_context(|| format!("tenant directory {:?} deletion", tmp_path))
+            },
+        );
+
         parent_slot_guard.drop_old_value()?;
 
         // Phase 6: Release the InProgress on the parent shard
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py b/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py
index a0daa41eb9..15285db03f 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_sharding.py
@@ -194,6 +194,18 @@ def test_sharding_split_smoke(
 
     assert len(pre_split_pageserver_ids) == 4
 
+    def shards_on_disk(shard_ids):
+        for pageserver in env.pageservers:
+            for shard_id in shard_ids:
+                if pageserver.tenant_dir(shard_id).exists():
+                    return True
+
+        return False
+
+    old_shard_ids = [TenantShardId(tenant_id, i, shard_count) for i in range(0, shard_count)]
+    # Before split, old shards exist
+    assert shards_on_disk(old_shard_ids)
+
     env.attachment_service.tenant_shard_split(tenant_id, shard_count=split_shard_count)
 
     post_split_pageserver_ids = [loc["node_id"] for loc in env.attachment_service.locate(tenant_id)]
@@ -202,6 +214,9 @@ def test_sharding_split_smoke(
     assert len(set(post_split_pageserver_ids)) == shard_count
     assert set(post_split_pageserver_ids) == set(pre_split_pageserver_ids)
 
+    # The old parent shards should no longer exist on disk
+    assert not shards_on_disk(old_shard_ids)
+
     workload.validate()
 
     workload.churn_rows(256)