Find the right help for your termite problem.

Look at the waist and wings. A termite swarmer has a straight, thick body and four wings all the same length. A flying ant has a pinched waist and front wings longer than the back pair. Termites also leave mud tubes; ants don't.

Published ranges run about $75 to $250. It's worth asking whether the fee is credited toward treatment if you go ahead. An inspection for a home sale is usually priced about the same.

For a typical house, published ranges put a liquid soil treatment at roughly $1,200 to $3,500 and a bait system at roughly $1,200 to $4,000, often with a yearly monitoring fee. Fumigation for drywood termites usually runs higher. Your quote depends on house size, construction and which termite you have.

Almost never. Insurers treat termite damage as a maintenance issue, so treatment and repairs come out of pocket. A repair warranty from a termite company is the closest thing to coverage.

You can fix what attracts them: wet soil, mulch against the siding, wood touching the ground. The treatment itself usually means trenching, drilling under slabs and careful product handling, so it's a job most people leave to a licensed pro.

The termite species, where evidence was found, which areas get treated, the product or system, how many visits, the price, what's excluded and what the warranty covers and costs to renew. If two quotes differ a lot, the scope is usually why.