  We study topological defects in anisotropic ferromagnets with competing
interactions near the Lifshitz point. We show that skyrmions and bi-merons are
stable in a large part of the phase diagram. We calculate skyrmion-skyrmion and
meron-meron interactions and show that skyrmions attract each other and form
ring-shaped bound states in a zero magnetic field. At the Lifshitz point merons
carrying a fractional topological charge become deconfined. These results imply
that unusual topological excitations may exist in weakly frustrated magnets
with conventional crystal lattices.
