diff --git a/pandas/computation/pytables.py b/pandas/computation/pytables.py
index 7716bc0051159..bf477cd71df62 100644
--- a/pandas/computation/pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/computation/pytables.py
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 import time
 import warnings
 from functools import partial
-from datetime import datetime
-
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta
+import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
 from pandas.compat import u, string_types, PY3
 from pandas.core.base import StringMixin
@@ -540,6 +540,18 @@ def parse_back_compat(self, w, op=None, value=None):
             if value is not None:
                 if isinstance(value, Expr):
                     raise TypeError("invalid value passed, must be a string")
+
+                # stringify with quotes these values
+                def convert(v):
+                    if isinstance(v, (datetime,np.datetime64,timedelta,np.timedelta64)) or hasattr(v, 'timetuple'):
+                        return "'{0}'".format(v)
+                    return v
+
+                if isinstance(value, (list,tuple)):
+                    value = [ convert(v) for v in value ]
+                else:
+                    value = convert(value)
+
                 w = "{0}{1}".format(w, value)
 
             warnings.warn("passing multiple values to Expr is deprecated, "
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
index c9955b1ae2fb2..5fcafdc295c5c 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_pytables.py
@@ -2347,6 +2347,30 @@ def test_term_compat(self):
             expected = wp.loc[:,wp.major_axis<=Timestamp('20000103'),:]
             assert_panel_equal(result, expected)
 
+        with ensure_clean_store(self.path) as store:
+
+            wp = Panel(np.random.randn(2, 5, 4), items=['Item1', 'Item2'],
+                       major_axis=date_range('1/1/2000', periods=5),
+                       minor_axis=['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])
+            store.append('wp',wp)
+
+            # stringified datetimes
+            result = store.select('wp', [Term('major_axis','>',datetime.datetime(2000,1,2))])
+            expected = wp.loc[:,wp.major_axis>Timestamp('20000102')]
+            assert_panel_equal(result, expected)
+
+            result = store.select('wp', [Term('major_axis','>',datetime.datetime(2000,1,2,0,0))])
+            expected = wp.loc[:,wp.major_axis>Timestamp('20000102')]
+            assert_panel_equal(result, expected)
+
+            result = store.select('wp', [Term('major_axis','=',[datetime.datetime(2000,1,2,0,0),datetime.datetime(2000,1,3,0,0)])])
+            expected = wp.loc[:,[Timestamp('20000102'),Timestamp('20000103')]]
+            assert_panel_equal(result, expected)
+
+            result = store.select('wp', [Term('minor_axis','=',['A','B'])])
+            expected = wp.loc[:,:,['A','B']]
+            assert_panel_equal(result, expected)
+
     def test_same_name_scoping(self):
 
         with ensure_clean_store(self.path) as store: