Major sea lice epidemics have erupted on Atlantic salmon fish farms on Vancouver Island’s west coast over the last three months, according to industry, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and independent reports.

The worst-hit areas appear to be established neighborhoods with older spruce trees, especially in Turnagain and Spenard.

Her right hand protected by an old plastic bag, Donna Devlin carefully reaches into a shallow sewer basin in her driveway, and drags out a dead rat the size of her forearm. It's the latest casualty in a war that Devlin and her neighbours say they've been fighting, on and off, for two decades.