Although IMAP::Client works quite well on its own, you may consider to use Mail::Box as abstraction level. Mail::Box supports various folder formats and hides implementation differences. See its website. You can simply use messages on the remote IMAP4 server as if they are local.

 use Mail::Box::IMAP4;
 my $f = Mail::Box::IMAP4->new(host => ..., username => ...,
      password => ..., folder => ...) or die;

 foreach my $msg ($f->messages) ...
 $f->message(1)->delete;
 $f->message(3)->head->add('X-Handler' => 'my own');