Southernwood and pecking

a quick google found this place:-

http://www.garden-centre.org/plants/Southernwood.htm

Very interesting!  I hadn't heard of Southernwood so I looked it up.  I love Wikipedia as a first stop on my journey, so here's what I found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_%28genus%29

Southernwood is part of the Artemisia genus, which includes wormwood and a variety of other herbs.  The thing they have in common is their volatile oils.  These oils are often reputed to be insect repellents of various sorts.

I grow wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) in my garden, planted especially for the chickens with this pest-repellent idea in mind.  They don't seem to like the taste and rarely take tiny nibbles from the leaves.  I keep the plants trimmed as they are very invasive in my climate, and I dry the trimmings and throw them on the floor of the coop as an old-fashioned 'strewing herb.'

I also grow tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) for the same reason.

So far I haven't had any red mites, fleas, dragons or evil spirits in the coop so the system must be working!    For Hillfooter's benefit I can also recommend them as elephant repellents.

Folks,

I found some southernwood on ebay in the end - Candlesby herbs in Lincolnshire. Beautifully packed, but Royal Mail let me down during our mini heat wave and it's looking rather sorry for itself.

I've potted it up and there still seems to be a little bit of life so here's hoping.

Once the lottie comes through I'm hoping to keep Indian runners so the info about red mite and wormwood etc. was helpful - thanks.

Regards,