If you prefer natural pest repellents in your home, the folks at The Kitchn have the ideal solution to keep houseflies away. The secret lies in cloves, or even just clove oil.
Apparently, flies hate the smell of cloves. Hanging whole ones in a small square of cheesecloth and putting it wherever flies congregate should be an effective way to keep those pesky flies away.
Since it’s the smell of cloves that the flies don’t like, we suggest taking the tip a step further and grinding them up to create an air freshener.
Get Rid of House Flies with Cloves [WikiHow via The Kitchn]
Used to wipe some clove oil on the bed head to repel mosquitoes at night. Seemed to work reasonably well.
Bay leaves hung by the door and window will repel flies as well.
I hang garlic by the window to repel vampires. 100% success rate so far!