Why the extra shells?

[John Almberg]

I just noticed something odd...

When I type ps, I get the following:

[on:~]> ps
   PID  TT  STAT      TIME COMMAND
30350  p0  Ss     0:00.03 -bash (bash)
30761  p0  R+     0:00.00 ps
99069  p1  Is+    0:00.01 /usr/local/bin/bash
79966  p3  Is     0:00.01 /usr/local/bin/bash
27050  p4  Is+    0:00.01 /usr/local/bin/bash
45342  p5  Is+    0:00.01 /usr/local/bin/bash
20302  p6  Is     0:00.02 /usr/local/bin/bash
73354  p7  Is+    0:00.01 /usr/local/bin/bash
94357  p8  Is+    0:00.14 /usr/local/bin/bash
82034  p9  Is+    0:00.02 /usr/local/bin/bash
82825  pa  Is+    0:00.02 /usr/local/bin/bash
63521  pb  Is+    0:00.07 /usr/local/bin/bash
75330  pc  Is+    0:00.06 /usr/local/bin/bash
81504  pd  Is+    0:00.01 /usr/local/bin/bash
95482  pe  Is+    0:00.01 /usr/local/bin/bash
21072  pf  Is+    0:00.12 /usr/local/bin/bash
96897  pg  Is+    0:00.07 /usr/local/bin/bash
50522  ph  Is+    0:00.02 /usr/local/bin/bash
98404  pi  Is+    0:00.03 /usr/local/bin/bash

I'm wondering why I have all these shells running? Could it be  
because I close my SSH terminal without exiting, thus leaving bash in  
some sort of suspended state?

This is a pure server box, with Apache, tinydns, and Qmail being the  
main processes.

Can I just kill them off? There is no one logged into this server  
besides me, and never will be. A 'who' confirms that I am the only  
one logged in.

Any hints, much appreciated.

-- John