Aphids on Burdock

So this year I decided to let a portion of my backyard go "wild" just to see what would grow. It's mostly long grass, burdock, violets, and Virginia Creeper with some other things that I can't identify. Anywho, a few of my Burdocks are COVERED in aphids. The plants look black from far away. I was debating cutting it all down but after taking a good look, the plants are also plentiful of ladybug eggs. Which is think is awesome. I'm going to leave everything be and just consider it a ladybug farm. It's all far enough away from my garden right now so I'm not worried about my plants.

We are in a drought right now in Milwaukee and I've noticed a lot of plants all over town are not doing well. And they seem to be ravaged by all sorts of pests. Is this normal during droughts? I assume with less water they are less capable of being bug resistant.

Stressed plants are definitely more susceptible to bugs. Sounds like a good plan with the ladybugs. Do you harvest the burdock?