You can always execute programs from your Perl script
with ...

`myscript -x 123`;
[download]

... or ...

system ( 'myscript', '-x 123' );
[download]

Just do ...

$ perldoc -f system
[download]

... from your command line and read all about it.
You might want to also look at CPAN
for other ways of dealing with ssh.

I hope that helps.