Stdio.File sockets not getting closed in 7.6

I've been battling a problem with 7.6 recently that I hadn't had in the 7.5 versions I'd previously been running.

My code creates, over time, a large number of short lived Protocol.LDAP.client objects. The problem that I'm having is that even if I explicitly destruct these objects, I end up with a large number of sockets that are in CLOSE_WAIT state. Eventually, this number of sockets increases to the point where I run out of FDs. The only way to clear the sockets completely is to call gc(), which I've resorted to every 5 minutes through a call out to solve the problem.

To me, this sounds like a problem. Anyone else have any thoughts?

Bill