[jQuery] Ajax and DOM Nodes -- multiplying

[jQuery] Ajax and DOM Nodes -- multiplying

I hope that I post this in the right spot.
Ok... so I am using this program called 'Drip' to check why IE is
crashing on my scripts after a few hours.
I have a header panel, that refreshes every 20 seconds like this:
    headertimer = setInterval("messageLoad()", 20000);
    messageLoad();
the headerLoad() function, looks like this:
    function messageLoad()
    {
        $.ajax({
            url: "/user/header/ajax",
            cache: false,
            dataType: "html",
            success: function(html){
                $("#mtemp").remove();
                $("#headerLoginMessages").html('<div id="mtemp"></div>');
                $("#mtemp").html(html);
            }
        });
        //loadContent('headerLoginMessages', '/user/header/ajax', '');
        //headerMessageAjax();
    }
in the body of the site, i have this near the top of the page in the
<body>:
    <div id="headerLoginMessages"></div>
NOW... what I dont understand, is using the DRIP application, it shows
that the DOM nodes increase with ever iteration of the messageLoad()
fucntion, yet, i am removing them on success using the .remove()...
Why/How is this still adding more and more and more, and then
eventually if you dont refresh the page, it ends up crashing the
script?
When i look at facebook.com in DRIP, and I use the chat, it added the
dom nodes fro the chat, and when it refreshed, it didn't keep adding
more and more nodes...
Am I doing something wrong here?