With regard to ear cleaning I've often heard it said "never put anything smaller than your elbow into your ear".
I recently had egg frying noises and popping in a vintage EICO integrated amp. Got rid of it by cleaning both the tube pins and the sockets first with the Deoxit D-series contact cleaner and then applying deoxit Gold. For the tube pins, I used a Q-tip. For the sockets, I used interdental brushes. Frying noises went away and the popping is now infrequent. Might need a second treatment. Deoxit makes a kit specifically for tube gear but I haven't used it.