Do I need to throw away my mattress if I have bed bugs?

You do not need to throw away your mattress if you have bed bugs, in most cases, because mattresses can be treated and encased effectively, and throwing away mattress can spread bugs to other areas and be costly, unless mattress is heavily infested, damaged, or old. Bed bugs hide in mattress seams, piping, tufts, and zippers, but they can be killed by professional heat treatment heating rooms to 120 to 135 degrees that kills all stages including eggs, by steam treatment above 200 degrees applied to seams, by vacuuming with crevice tool to remove bugs and eggs, and most importantly by encasing mattress and box spring in bed bug proof encasements with zipper that are specifically designed to trap bugs inside and prevent new hiding, starving trapped bugs over 12 months as they cannot feed through encasement. Encasements also make inspection easier. If you throw away mattress without encasing it in plastic first, bugs can fall off and infest other areas and hallways, and new mattress can become infested if surrounding areas like box spring, bed frame, headboard, and baseboards are not treated. Only throw away mattress if it is heavily infested with thousands of bugs, torn so encasement cannot seal, or you were planning to replace anyway, and if you do throw away, seal it in plastic, label it as infested with bed bugs to prevent others taking it, and treat surrounding area professionally before bringing new mattress.