#with the debug flag set
$Net::OpenSSH::debug |= 16;

$object =~ s/( \d+-\d+)/\\$1/g;
$cmd = qq|blah blah $object blah blah|;

( $output, $errput ) = $ssh->capture2(  $cmd )
              or $logger->logdie( "bad".$ssh->error );


using the debugger
x $object
item 0-7 0-9
after substitution
x $object             
item \\ 0-7\\ 0-9'
# lot of stuff removed the 
#open_ex  ......  'blah blah item\\ 0-7\\ 0-9