How do I clean my earphones?

I have this Sony Walkman. How do I clean the earphones? I’m thinking I can use a safety pin or maybe a staple to clean the little holes, but can I/should I gently swab with rubbing alcohol also? I don’t want to force ear wax (I know, yuck, but there you go) further down into the earphones, but I would like to clean them out.

What do the Dopers suggest?

You might be able to snap off the screens and clean them separately. They appear to be separate pieces of plastic, so give them a light twist or something to make sure they’re not glued in.

Nope, no go on that. Woulda been awful handy, though.

When I was working in interpretation, we used to rub down all the headsets that went out with isopropyl alchohol. It seemed to work fairly well as a solvent, and if you’ve got a pretty wet cloth you should be able to dissolve the wax in the screen.

If alcohol actually gets inside the earphones themselves (not that I’m planning on dousing them or anything!) will that damage them?