Purification of high-quality total RNA from specimens is essential for many molecular techniques. In tardigrades (water bears), disruption of the cuticle is an important step in obtaining a good yield that is representative of all tissues of the animal. As with all single-stranded RNA methods, sterile technique, proper storage conditions, and handling are required for maintaining the quality and integrity of the material. This procedure will result in high-quality total RNA suitable for downstream applications such as cDNA synthesis, reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), RNAseq library generation, and northern blots.