Thanks for your input Dreadie.
Sounds like your wife is into all natural cure solutions, good for her in her attempts to assist one's immune system to help avoid or ward off sicknesses.
I am sure I can find anise oil, I just have never looked for it as I have had no need in the past. I do use foods to assist in maintaining my health, grow my own herbs which I have to now go out and pick, then toss them in the garbage. why? Because my wifey decided to use a spray machine to paint spray fence boards and decided to spray near my gardens. So, I have cedar red potato plants, french tarragon, two types of oregano and two types of thyme. Good thing my peppers are located 5 feet off the ground on my deck and away from her painting artwork. You should see the grass!
From my research, it looks like anise oil is also used to attract mice, youch! I have sonic gadgets in the garage to ward off field mice and backed up with strategically placed traps. I didn't find one reference about it attracting bees, I did find a reference of it warding off insects and it being the "catnip for dogs". Alex's advice has worked in the past, so I trust his experience, the Internet is just a starting point to help in research but I questioned everything I read as there is some much conflicting information and unsubstantuated data.
My thinking process, is to make a tea/mix with ground anise seed, put it in my spray bottle and mist around my plants a couple times a day, especially early in the morning, to attract the bees. If the mist blows away, that's okay - like Alex said, the bees can sense it for miles, that will be an initial invite, plus it may assist in confusing any field mice from coming around. Funny story, a couple of years ago we had a mouse get into the house and caused quite a lot of excitement. First detected by sparky, our Eskimo/Sheltie mix, she was all over the house sniffy like crazy. As time went on, she focused her attention on my dresser in our bedroom, we pulled it apart and found mouse poop, while pulling the dresser apart I heard the wife scream and jump on the bed - mousey ran over her foot and out of the bedroom, down the hall, Sparky took off in chase. I placed Bounce sheets in all the drawers, closets and at the base of our bedroom door, our kids bedroom door and then strategic locations to force the little sucker into one area in our dining room - it appeared to work as a few nights past and Sparky wouldn't leave the dining room. I put a mouse trap loaded with peanut butter in the kitchen between our fridge and counter on the floor and dragged Sparky back into our bedroom. 20 minutes passed and SNAP!
(for the record, the dog's name is not sparky, I call all dog's sparky, that way I don't have to remember any dog's name .... just call them all Sparky).
