We have an artichoke plant that was blooming really well and we were getting several artichokes off of it. Well, living in Ramona our house is built on an ant hill and the ants attacked. The bush was still growing and blooming but we were unable to eat the artichokes because the ants were so thick and now the plant looks dead. We have a baby artichoke that didn't even get a chance to grow and it dried up and the heart bloomed. So my first question is what can we do about the ants we have dogs and don't want to use chemiclas because we still want to be able to eat them and second is does anyone know why my plant may have died?