One thing I found helpful was the shield. You do not get the debuff if their attacks hit your shield. It involves a lot of running away, blocking when you know they're about to spew at you and not letting yourself be surrounded. If you are hit with the debuff then don't panic and shield the rest of their attacks before you try and run, waiting for the debuff to wear off. If you're surrounded then it's hard to break out of that cycle so do everything you can to not let yourself be swarmed by them.

The best option is to snipe them with a bow while they're not aware of your presence. If they do start to come at you then try and run far enough away where you only have one to contend with one and shields up as you walk towards them. Clubs are very effective vs them and make short work of these annoyances. I found frostner to be particularly effective with it's slow debuff as well. Hope this helps! I died quite a few times to them before I found these tactics to be effective.