Tenebrio molitor is a holometabolous insect with females capable of laying up to 500 eggs throughout their reproductive cycle (Frooninckx et al., 2022). The embryonic development takes 4 to 6 days, the larval development period spans 2 to 3 months, and the pupal stage lasts 6 days (Kim, 2015). After a few days, adults reach sexual maturity, and females begin ovipositing between days 4 and 17 after mating (Frooninckx et al., 2022). Individuals used in the study originated from several colonies in Mexico City and its metropolitan area. The animals were fed a standardized diet consisting of wheat bran and apple (Castro et al., 2017). Insects were housed in 15 plastic hinged containers (15 cm x 18 cm x 5.8 cm), each containing 200 individuals, to mitigate cannibalistic behavior. They were kept at a room temperature of 22.4 °C with a photoperiod of 12:12 h light:dark cycle. By the third generation, mealworms were transferred to a glass container (70 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm), and their resulting larvae were used in the experiments. All experiments commenced with stage 3 larvae, approximately 1.5 cm long. The treatments and feeding regime included: a) Polystyrene (PS): larvae were provided with 1 cm2 sections cut from REYMA brand disposable plates provided ad libitum; b) Polyethylene (PE): fed with 5 cm x 5 cm sections of polyethylene bags from Poliexcel brand, commonly found in Mexican supermarkets; c) Compostable products (CP): fed with sections (5 cm x 5 cm) of Full Circle Fresh AirTM lemon-flavored bags (USA), made from cornstarch (Maizena) and other unspecified ingredients; and, d). Control: fed with 1 g of wheat bran and 2 cmᵌ of apple provided weekly, with an additional 0.5 g of wheat bran and 2 cmᵌ of apple every 15 days for the first three treatments.