SWARMS

Some vilekin are nigh irrelevant to the average adventurer when met individually, but when they swarm, become far more of a threat. Syrphids, midges, and even bees, when gathered together into a swarm, behave as one, aggressively attacking--or defending themselves from--any being that draws near enough to disturb them. (1)

(1) Encyclopaedia Eorzea Vol. 1, p. 280

Known species that create swarms:

- Bee cloud
- Shroudbee swarm
- Syrphid cloud
- Honeybee cloud
- Honeybee swarm
- Dravanian bee cloud
- Bothered bee cloud
- Garden bee cloud
- Midge cloud

- Killer hornet cloud
- Blowfly swarm
- Fleshfly swarm
- Corpsefly
- Agaric fly swarm
- Hoverfly swarm
- Potter wasp swarm
- Sandstorm

- Sun midge swarm
- Dung midge swarm
- Jungle midge cloud
- Leafminer
- Sun midge cloud
- Syrphid swarm
- Hornet swarm
- Hornet cloud

BEE CLOUD

Some vilekin are more friend than foe, as are bees. They bumble from flower to flower, gathering and spreading pollen--and farmers gratefully accept the unintentional help to their crops. As such, farmers will often hire adventurers to help protect their tiny partners, by culling predators such as puk hatchlings. (2)

However, bees do not necessarily know that man is a friend, and so will often swarm and attack if disturbed or feel their food is being stolen--making it sadly necessary to defend oneself. Young marauders are sometimes called upon to cull the populations. (3) (4)

(2) Quest: Orange Crush
(3) Levequest: Far from the Vine
(4) Hunting Log: Marauder

Habitats:
- Middle La Noscea, Summerford
- Lower La Noscea, Cedarwood (levequest only)

​Combat Rating: 4 to 8

shroudbee swarm

In a properly ordered hive, the bee answers to her queen, whose commands are carried as scents that only bees can smell. But in recent moons, voidsent called "pus gnats" have invaded the Twelveswood; these gnats have mastered the art of beespeak, and their odors can become so powerful as to lure away entire hives to become veritable armies of stinging vilekin. (5)

Fortunately, the scourge has not spread to all bees in the Twelveswood, but swarms of shroudbees may attack one unawares, even while in the process of hunting other creatures. (6)(7)

Buscarron swears by the use of shroudbee stingers to give his mead "a little extra kick". (8)

(5) Levequest: Can't Say No to Gnat
(6) Levequest: Scourge of the Saplings
(7) Levequest: A Shroom with a View
(8) Levequest: Something in the Mead

Habitats:
- Central Shroud, Lifemend Stump (levequests only)
- East Shroud, Hawthorne Hut (levequests only)

​Combat Rating: 4 to 8

SYRPHID CLOUD

In stark contrast to bees, syrphids are deserving of the word "vile". Syrphids are carrion scavengers attracted to the scent of rot and brimstone, whose bite can transmit disease and uncleanness; able to multiply well out of control, they are often culled by thaumaturges and adventurers carrying out levequests. (1) (9) (10)

Syrphids lay their eggs in the undergrowth of thick foliage; those eggs then hatch, and the larvae cheerfully consume all plant matter about them, making them even worse pests. Stingbrew is sometimes used to madden syrphid clouds into abandoning their laying--but it does make them quite hostile. (11)

To be fair, however, syrphids do have a beneficial use: baskets of them can be used as live bait in freshwater fishing. (12)

(1) Encyclopaedia Eorzea Vol. 1, p. 280
(9) Hunting Log: Thaumaturge
(10) Levequest: Stay for a Vile
(11) Quest: Green Thumb
(12) Item tooltip: Syrphid Basket

Habitats:
- Lower La Noscea: Blind Iron Mines (quest only)
- Central Thanalan: Black Brush
- Central Shroud: Spirithold

Combat Rating: 5 to 9, 15, 27