diff --git a/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options.go b/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options.go
index 68ee4d542..63c449950 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options.go
+++ b/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package v1
 
 import (
+	"bytes"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
 	"strings"
@@ -38,7 +39,11 @@ func (o *Options) Filter(prefix string) Options {
 // UnmarshalJSON implements an alternative parser for this field
 func (o *Options) UnmarshalJSON(b []byte) error {
 	var entries map[string]interface{}
-	json.Unmarshal(b, &entries)
+	d := json.NewDecoder(bytes.NewReader(b))
+	d.UseNumber()
+	if err := d.Decode(&entries); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
 
 	return o.parse(entries)
 }
diff --git a/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options_test.go b/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options_test.go
index 51d5c6b6c..9508eed6f 100644
--- a/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options_test.go
+++ b/pkg/apis/jaegertracing/v1/options_test.go
@@ -64,6 +64,34 @@ func TestMultipleSubValues(t *testing.T) {
 	assert.Len(t, args, 3)
 }
 
+func TestUnmarshalToArgs(t *testing.T) {
+	tests := []struct {
+		in   string
+		args []string
+		err  string
+	}{
+		{in: `^`, err: "invalid character '^' looking for beginning of value"},
+		{
+			in:   `{"a": 5000000000, "b": 15.222, "c":true, "d": "foo"}`,
+			args: []string{"--a=5000000000", "--b=15.222", "--c=true", "--d=foo"},
+		},
+	}
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		opts := Options{}
+		err := opts.UnmarshalJSON([]byte(test.in))
+		if test.err != "" {
+			assert.EqualError(t, err, test.err)
+		} else {
+			assert.NoError(t, err)
+			args := opts.ToArgs()
+			sort.SliceStable(args, func(i, j int) bool {
+				return args[i] < args[j]
+			})
+			assert.Equal(t, test.args, args)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
 func TestMultipleSubValuesWithFilter(t *testing.T) {
 	o := NewOptions(nil)
 	o.UnmarshalJSON([]byte(`{"memory": {"max-traces": "50000"}, "es": {"server-urls": "http://elasticsearch:9200", "username": "elastic", "password": "changeme"}}`))