1 st Plague: Nile River Turns to "Blood."  Common in the Nile Delta Region, especially in the summer when the water is nutrient rich, for the river to take on a red color from the red soil particles and red pigment that result from harmful algae growing in the water. (Highest levels in September)  This normally kills the fish in the river within days to a week of the algae outbreak.

2 nd Plague: The Frogs  Happens 7 days after the first plague.  Frogs are forced from the polluted Nile river caused by the decaying fish.  Nile teems with frogs in Sept. and Oct.  Frogs will seek sources of light and heat in search of insects to feed upon.

3 rd Plague: The Gnats  Rotting bodies of fish and frogs attract swarms of gnats and flies. Gnats will breed rapidly because their natural predators, the frogs, have died by the hundreds.  Hebrew word for Gnats includes many different small flying insects.  Gnat larvae feed on microorganisms in decaying animals and result in swarms of Gnats and midges swirling up from the ground like clouds of dust.  Culicoides canithorax: biting midge/gnat  Common in Egypt in Oct./Nov. for swarms of gnats to emerge.

4 th Plague: The Flies  5 possible types of flies: Housefly, Black fly, Horsefly, Tsetse fly and Stable fly.  Housefly not very destructive.  Black flies do not breed rapidly and don't swarm.  Horseflies do not breed rapidly.  Tsetse fly lives mainly in tropical regions with high rainfall.  Stable Fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, has a painful bite that punctures the skin and leaves an open wound that can become infected. They swarm and breed rapidly.

5 th Plague: Pestilence (Death of Livestock)  Killed a range of different animals but no humans mentioned.  Rules out bacterial infections like Anthrax.  Only hoofed mammals died: horses, donkeys, camels, cattle, sheep and goats.  Plague was specific to certain animals only.  Science know of two viruses that only kill these animals mentioned.  They are spread by the same insect and can be spread at the same time.  1.African horse sickness  2.Blue Tongue (cattle, sheep, goats, camels.)  Each is spread by the Culicoides midge/gnat which is the 3 rd plague.

6 th Plague: The Boils  Afflicts both animals and humans.  Bacterium: Pseudomonas mallei, common throughout Africa and the Middle East.  Commonly known as "Glanders."  Produces festering boils in both animals and humans.  Used as a biological weapon in WWI.  Highly contagious infection, spreads in the air, by direct contact and by fly bites.  Biblical description is insufficient to identify the cause of the boils for sure.  Hebrew word for boils is used to describe a variety of skin sores.  Deut 28:27, 35: boils affect knees, legs and soles of the feet.  Stable fly (4 th plague) usually bites the lower part of the body.

7 th Plague: The Hail  The worst hail storm in Egyptian history  Violent hail storm recorded in Oct in Israel and Jordan  Sixty people injured, cars and buildings damaged; layer of hail 3 feet thick.  Hailstones can exceed 5 inches in diameter and can kill both animals and humans as well as destroy crops.  Flax and barley were destroyed.  Wheat and spelt (grass related to wheat) were not destroyed; they ripen later.  Barley and flax ripen and bloom at the same time during the year.  Biblical account of the hail reveals it must have occurred in Feb./March.

8 th Plague: The Locusts  The Hail has left the ground very, very wet.  Locusts travel with the wind, "East wind blew across the land all day and night. By morning the wind had brought the locusts."  Locusts seek damp, sandy soil to lay their eggs.  The desert locust: Schistocerca gregaria, is part of a large group of insects commonly called grasshoppers. Plagues of locusts occur only when weather conditions are favorable.  There must be wet soil which attracts millions of locusts to settle and lay their eggs. Eggs are deposited about 4 inches below the surface of the ground and the earth must be damp to this level.  Modern reference: Desert Locust Information Service of the United Nations reported that in there was a "regional upsurge of locusts that affected countries along the Red Sea. It developed as a result of a cyclone in June 1996 and heavy rains in November.

 Life cycle of the desert locust goes from eggs to hoppers to immature adults to mature adults. The hopper stage do not fly, but travel by marching. Hoppers turn to pink immature adults with wings that can fly long distances with the wind and feed voraciously when they land.  Eat roughly their own weight in food every day.  1 ton of locusts (small part of an average swarm) eats the same amount of food in one day as 10 elephants, 25 camels or 2,500 people.  Devoured what little food the Egyptians had left after the hail.

9 th Plague: The Darkness  Sandstorms/dust storms common in Egypt in the spring, called Khamsins, can last up to 3 days.  The first dust storm of the year normally produces a very dense and dark dust cloud. Due to the red earth deposited in Egypt by the Nile River after the retreat of Nile dries out and the sand is whipped up into the air.  Biblical account suggests the plague of darkness occurred in March, after the plague of locusts shortly before the Passover.  The plague suggests an intense dust storm resulting from the large quantities of red earth deposited after the Nile flooded six months earlier.  Biblical account describes a "darkness that can be felt." Ex 10:21, indicating the darkness brought about by a dust storm.

10 th Plague: Death of the Firstborn  The hail of the 7 th plague would have left whatever of the harvest was left very wet.  The 8 th plague of locusts would have eaten most of what was left of the crops in addition to dropping locusts' feces all over the ground, contaminating the rest of the harvest.  In this crisis, the Egyptians may have stored what grain was left while it was wet and contaminated by insect feces. Most of it was destroyed by the hail and left wet from the melting hail.  Grain will get moldy when stored wet; dangerous mold grows under these conditions.  Locust feces will make this condition even work.  Even under the best conditions of air circulation, wet grain will get moldy.  The dust storm of the 9 th plague would have prevented air circulation within the grain storage rooms for three days.

 Toxic spores and organisms from the locust feces would have bred and multiplied in the damp, dark conditions.  Mycotoxins are poisons caused by fungus growing on organic substances like crops.  Macrocylic tricothecenes, causes massive internal bleeding and rapid, sudden death.  Why firstborn males of humans and animals?  Theory: Firstborn males were privileged and were fed first and given more. They would have been fed first from the contaminated grain.  Firstborn animals would have been used for sacrifices and therefore would have had to be fed so that they could be healthy when sacrificed by the Egyptian priests using them to appease their gods and to ward off any more plagues.