I fished them out using a pair of tongs that I put under hot water in the sink. I went to get some alcohol wipes while I left the tongs under the sun, after drying the AirPods with some bathroom tissue (and throwing out the ear tips).
Once I had the wipes, I cleaned the AirPods multiple times, and wiped them on a microfibre cloth. Now I’m letting them under stay in the sun.
I don’t know what more to do. I plan to let them be under the sun for the rest of the day, and probably wipe them a few more times. I don’t know if that’ll be enough to soothe my worries, though.
Idk how bleach-mix cleaning supply degrades plastic, but spray it on, keep it there for however long the bottle says it takes to disinfect, then wipe it off.
Common misconception is that cleaning stuff disinfects on contact, most disinfectants need to be on there for like 10-15 minutes.
Thanks for the tip. A link on Apple's support page said not to use products containing bleach, and to use wipes - https://support.apple.com/en-us/102672
But I'll look around for something that seems to fit both advises.