Exploitative competition alters bee foraging and flower choice

In this field experiment, we test and support the hypothesis that exploitative competition between bees can influence several aspects of their foraging behaviour. Three treatments of lavender patches were set out: bumble bees excluded, honey bees excluded, control. Bumble bees are known to handle lavender flowers more rapidly than honey bees, partly due to their longer tongues. As predicted, excluding these superior competitors consistently (n = 4 trials) and greatly increased honey bee numbers per patch (14-fold increase; P