Since the mites have also been found in low numbers in honeybee hives, Brown wants to confirm that the mites do not pose a threat to bees.
A recent video Brown took of himself excavating a nest at a property in a Christchurch suburb has been viewed more than 500,000 times.
The video shows him dressed in a beekeper's suit, carefully digging at soil to access and remove a nest to later inspect for mites.
At first, there are only a handful of wasps flying about, but within a matter of seconds there is a large angry swarm.
Venom soon coats the camera lens.
Dr Brown said he was surprised by the size of the nest in the clip.
"I thought it was going to be a small nest because there wasn't very much wasp traffic in and out of the entrance."
He estimated the nest, with 11 different layers, housed between 3000 and 4000 wasps.
"It was big for this time of year," he said.
Wasp nests were at their largest during autumn.
He believed if the nest had remained undisturbed it would have had an additional three to five layers.
After the "quick" 10 minute excavation, he walked away with only one sting to his arm.
A later inspection of the nest found no mites.
Dr Brown will continue excavating wasp nests in the Canterbury, Otago, Wellington, Southland and West Coast regions over the coming months to gather mites to test their association with bees.
Bee larvae would be fed a solution containing stable isotopes and the mites later inspected to see if these appear in their systems.
"Stable isotopes are molecules that act like a chemical marker that we can track," he said.
"If the stable isotopes are found in the mites this will conclusively tell us they are feeding on the bees because there is no other way for them to acquire these molecules."
