Good question! See Bitwise String Operators, which says "You may explicitly show which type of operation you intend by using "" or 0+". So this: 
use strict;
use warnings;

my $a = '94';
my $b = '98';
my $c = 0+$a ^ 0+$b;
print "$c\n";

my $x = 94;
my $y = 98;
my $z = 0+$a ^ 0+$b;
print "$z\n";

my $i = 94 ^ 98;
print "$i\n";

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Gives: 
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In reply to Re: variable treatment by oxone
in thread variable treatment by asthaonard

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