I tried MERGE too and got the same error. I was using 5.16.2 on Windows. That's my work box. I'm home now on Linux, MERGE is also not helping me. am I using the option wrongly?

r@Che ~ $ perl -MMemoize -MMemoize::Expire -E "sub f {int rand 100}; \
          tie my %cache => 'Memoize::Expire',LIFETIME=>2,LIST_CACHE=>'
+MERGE';\
          memoize 'f',SCALAR_CACHE => [HASH => \%cache ];\
          for (1..10) {say f(); sleep 1}"
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
45
r@Che ~ $ perl -v

This is perl 5, version 14, subversion 2 (v5.14.2) built for x86_64-li
+nux-gnu-thread-multi
(with 65 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)

Copyright 1987-2011, Larry Wall

Perl may be copied only under the terms of either the Artistic License
+ or the
GNU General Public License, which may be found in the Perl 5 source ki
+t.

Complete documentation for Perl, including FAQ lists, should be found 
+on
this system using "man perl" or "perldoc perl".  If you have access to
+ the
Internet, point your browser at http://www.perl.org/, the Perl Home Pa
+ge.
[download]

Cheers,
R.

$ perl -MMemoize -MMemoize::Expire -E " \
    sub f { int rand 100 }; \ 
    tie my %cache => 'Memoize::Expire', LIFETIME => 2; \
    memoize 'f', LIST_CACHE => 'MERGE', \
                 SCALAR_CACHE => [ HASH => \%cache ]; \
    for (1..10) { say f(); sleep 1 }"
62
62
56
56
39
39
85
85
42
[download]

Thanks for this example. With a little further modification it demonstrates that Memoize::Expire won't work for functions returning lists:

perl -MMemoize -MMemoize::Expire -E " \
    sub f { ('X',int rand 100) }; \ 
    tie my %cache => 'Memoize::Expire', NUM_USES => 3; \
    memoize 'f', LIST_CACHE => 'MERGE', \
                 SCALAR_CACHE => [ HASH => \%cache ]; \
    for (1..6) { say f() }"
[download]

X63
X
X
X67
X
X

You should be able to use any tied hash- not only Memoize::Expire but also any of the file-stores- if you first wrap it in something that will freeze/thaw the list beforehand. Example:

perl -MMemoize -MMemoize::Expire -MSerializeValues -E " \
     sub f { ('X',int rand 100) }; \
     tie my %subcache => 'Memoize::Expire', NUM_USES => 3; \
     tie my %cache => 'SerializeValues', \%subcache; \
     memoize 'f', LIST_CACHE => [ HASH => \%cache ], \
                  SCALAR_CACHE =>'MERGE' ; \
     for (1..6) { say f() }"
[download]

X73
X73
X2
X2
X64
X64

Below is my SerializeValues wrapper. Note that it seems to call the sub-cache's "FETCH" while it stores, effectively reducing NUM_USES by one. Also since Serialize requires a reference, it has to be in the LIST_CACHE slot, not SCALAR_CACHE.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

package SerializeValues;
require Tie::Hash;
 @ISA = qw(Tie::ExtraHash);

use strict;
use warnings;
use Storable qw[freeze thaw];


sub TIEHASH {
  my ($class, $child_hash) = @_;
  return bless [$child_hash], $class;
}

sub STORE {
  $_[0][0]{$_[1]}= freeze $_[2]
}

sub FETCH {
  thaw $_[0][0]{$_[1]}
}
[download]

I'm going to email the author (mjd) and suggest adding a flag to the HASH option to say that the values should be serialized first.

PS. This module is over a decade old, and within a couple weeks two of us independently run into the same limitation- there's something going around...