Just to throw out another option, you could also use the quotemeta function on your string.

quotemeta EXPR 
quotemeta

Returns the value of EXPR with all non-"word" characters backslashed. 
+(That is, all characters not matching /[A-Za-z_0-9]/ will be preceded
+ by a backslash in the returned string, regardless of any locale sett
+ings.) This is the internal function implementing the \Q escape in do
+uble-quoted strings.

If EXPR is omitted, uses $_.
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