Well, I have just searched all the lice web pages and they all say you CAN catch lice via shared hats and clothes although one site does draw a distinction between head lice & body lice. So, until I find the other citation that claims this may be a myth, I retract my earlier statement. I would suggest that anyone interested in the topic should insert lice in the favorite search engine and follow all the leads. There are some interesting complications in this issue in terms of which chemicals work, when, how often, and why or why not. After some more research I'll let you know. The reason I am so interested in this topic is because I once worked at a large institution and was in charge of a very popular educational program that had up to 100 or more children trying on hats and wearing costumes every weekday during the field trip season and for the five years I was in that position (at least 25,000 children in that program all told) we never had one reported case of lice transmission. Not one! If it is so easy to catch lice this way I find it hard to believe we wouldn't have at least one complaint, no matter how diligent we tried to be with clothing treatment. Just my two cents of anecdotal information. Matthew White Executive Director American Precision Museum ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).