use Time::Local;

    my ($month, $mday, $year) = split "/", "06/08/2002";
    my ($month2, $mday2,$year2) = split "/", "06/18/2002";
    my $time = timelocal(0,0,0,$mday,$month-1,$year);
    my $time2 = timelocal(0,0,0,$mday2,$month2-1,$year2);

    my $diff = abs(($time - $time2)/(60*60*24));

    print "diff = $diff\n";