This seems kind of strange and has been happening to me off and on since I started using Houdini a couple of years ago.
On occasion I will find a mantra output node that has been generated somehow with out my willful intent. Sometimes I will find several. Today I have over 2500 of them if the count is correct. They are all stacked directly on top of another.

Does anyone have any idea of what sort of errant key click or command fumbling I could be doing to cause this?
I am trying to remove all of these while I am typing and going on 10+ minutes.

trying to select and delete all of these at once seems to freeze the app - 20+ minutes and going.

However if i select all and then collapse to a subnet I was able to remove them with just a few moments of pause.

Do you have a cat?

same here sometimes, but only 8 or 10 mantra nodes ….

IPR creates new ones I think

Had this issue too at once, couldn't recreate and forgot.

jsmack
Do you have a cat?

No. O_O
Cat can influence mantra behaviour?

lol I do have a cat and he readily accepts blame

poor cat
touch/ type keyboard when you look away? what colour?
but really

2500 of them

is just more than more O_O
I didn't count but had about Matthias's amount. Probably it's a question to staff.

really, just checked and had 1150 of them that respawned
it is seriously a bit concerning

It seems that every time I went in and out of a geometry node a group of 25 Mantra nodes were being created.

Saved the scene, restarted Houdini and all seems to be working as expected now. I'll chime back in if/when it happens again.