If this is "no bugs" then what do "severe bugs" look like?

Nikita just emailed me about an, as of yet, unsuccessful search for the rubber boots I left in Cherskiy. I have a back up pair of slightly shorter boots, so I can bring those. Not a big deal and I expect I’ll find my tall boots in a random Polaris bag once I get there. But then, Nikita casually mentioned at the end of the email that the mosquitoes this year are “as severe as they can be.” I’m not sure what that even means especially when he mentioned that over the last few summers there have been essentially no mosquitoes by his standards. I’m not a bug wimp by any normal American measure. I’ve been working and recreating in buggy country for years. But I had, until this point, considered the bugs we faced on the Polaris Project to be at the varsity level. Now we go pro. Maybe I should start blood doping?