diff --git a/commands/ls.go b/commands/ls.go
index 909e25a8..da5ea8ce 100644
--- a/commands/ls.go
+++ b/commands/ls.go
@@ -103,13 +103,9 @@ func runLs(env *Env, opts lsOptions, args []string) error {
 	var err error
 
 	if len(args) >= 1 {
-		// either the shell or cobra remove the quotes, we need them back for the parsing
-		for i, arg := range args {
-			if strings.Contains(arg, " ") {
-				args[i] = fmt.Sprintf("\"%s\"", arg)
-			}
-		}
-		assembled := strings.Join(args, " ")
+		// either the shell or cobra remove the quotes, we need them back for the query parsing
+		assembled := repairQuery(args)
+
 		q, err = query.Parse(assembled)
 		if err != nil {
 			return err
@@ -153,6 +149,19 @@ func runLs(env *Env, opts lsOptions, args []string) error {
 	}
 }
 
+func repairQuery(args []string) string {
+	for i, arg := range args {
+		split := strings.Split(arg, ":")
+		for j, s := range split {
+			if strings.Contains(s, " ") {
+				split[j] = fmt.Sprintf("\"%s\"", s)
+			}
+		}
+		args[i] = strings.Join(split, ":")
+	}
+	return strings.Join(args, " ")
+}
+
 type JSONBugExcerpt struct {
 	Id         string   `json:"id"`
 	HumanId    string   `json:"human_id"`
diff --git a/commands/ls_test.go b/commands/ls_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..aff94e03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/commands/ls_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package commands
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
+)
+
+func Test_repairQuery(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := []struct {
+		args   []string
+		output string
+	}{
+		{
+			[]string{""},
+			"",
+		},
+		{
+			[]string{"foo"},
+			"foo",
+		},
+		{
+			[]string{"foo", "bar"},
+			"foo bar",
+		},
+		{
+			[]string{"foo bar", "baz"},
+			"\"foo bar\" baz",
+		},
+		{
+			[]string{"foo:bar", "baz"},
+			"foo:bar baz",
+		},
+		{
+			[]string{"foo:bar boo", "baz"},
+			"foo:\"bar boo\" baz",
+		},
+	}
+
+	for _, tc := range cases {
+		require.Equal(t, tc.output, repairQuery(tc.args))
+	}
+}