Thanks for the okra-tomato info. No more than I'm planting & relative to the sunlight, this shouldn't be a problem, then.
I think it took the cornmeal 4-6 weeks to kill the fireants. I just sprinkled a little on the mounds and when it looked like they were getting low I gave them more. Some were at the edge of my garden and others were in 3 self-contained bins in the greenhouse. Nowhere to be seen now. Love it!
My fire ant mounds are over a 12 acre yard area, and every time I kill a mound, they pop up 5 feet over. It almost like playing whack-a-mole with ants.
I don't like using the fire ant killer because all of the rain that falls in my yard eventually ends up in my pond. Nothing has ever been killed, but I still worry about it.
If the cornmeal will work, it would be a wonderful alternative for me!