Blood, Clay, Man, Dust and the Plagues of Egypt

Exodus's plague of "blood" (Ex.7:14-22). In Biblical Hebrew the words for 'man' and 'red' and 'blood' and  'ground' or 'soil' or 'clay' come from the same root: a-d-m

Man: אָדָם
Soil/Clay/Ground: אֳדָמָה 

Blood: דם

Red:  אדום

It sounds likely to me that the Nile ran red with clay or iron, if the plague of blood or red even happened at all.  In Exodus it is Yahweh telling *Aaron* (not Moses) to wave his magic wand over the water.  I'm guessing that once the waters were contaminated, the frogs didn't want to be in there either, hence the plague of frogs.  All the dead frogs must have attracted a lot of gnats and flies.

In Exodus 8:26, Moses says that the sacrifices of the Hebrews would be detestable to the Egyptians, and that they would stone the Hebrews if they knew of them.  I wonder what was so detestable?  Did the Egyptians not make animal sacrifices or were the Hebrews doing something else?  This is unclear. 

 ²⁶ But Moses said, “That would not be right. The sacrifices we offer the LORD our God would be detestable to the Egyptians. And if we offer sacrifices that are detestable in their eyes, will they not stone us? ²⁷ We must take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the LORD our God, as he commands us.” 

In Exodus 9,  the Egyptian livestock die, presumably from drinking contaminated water.  The Hebrews' livestock allegedly did not die, suggesting a different water source, or perhaps different types of livestock.  The plague of boils sounds like plain old bubonic plague.  Moses finally gets his chance to wave the magic wand when it comes to the plague of hail.