1.   Also what termite contracts cover and how to lessen the likelihood of damage to your home.

2.   Last month, a jury in Macon County, Ala., found that Orkin breached a longtime termite contract with Artie Mae Jeter of Tuskegee and committed fraud.

3.   The court considered the federal Act inapplicable because the connection between the termite contract and interstate commerce was too slight.

4.   The termite prevention contract between petitioner exterminators and respondent Gwin, a homeowner, specified that any controversy thereunder would be settled exclusively by arbitration.

5.   To reach this conclusion, the court had to find that the federal Arbitration Act, which pre-empts conflicting state law, did not apply to the termite contract.